Shifting Images
by wlfgang213
Summary: Just after Harry's 11th birthday he has an unexpected visitor, that turns the future... and the past, on it's head.
1. Year 01 Chapter 01 Back To Before

AN: I'm writing this story for my pleasure alone, so I don't really care if you want to flame me. Whatever,

I borrowed idea's and occasional quotes from a number of Fanfic's I liked, along with quoting a lot from cannon. Just assume I don't own anything, and If and when I can remember what I am quoting I will reference them.

I started writing this a long time ago, So i'll post entire school years at a time, then take time off between years. I'm currently in the third year, So i'm going to post the entire first year after I see what kind of reception this first chapter gets.

Chapter 01

Eleven year old Harry Potter was excited. In days he would be going to a school to learn magic. After so many years of his uncle denying the very existence of anything magical, the idea that he was a wizard amazed him.

Little did he know it was going to be a very, very long time before he started his first year at Hogwarts.

"Boy, get down here!" Came the shout from the ground floor of number four Privet Drive. Figuring that his relatives were home early from Vernon's family work luncheon, Harry quickly leapt out of bed, not wanting to give his uncle a reason to not take him to Kings Cross Station on September first. He hurried down the stairs, but what he found there was not what he was expecting.

"Who... Who are you?" Harry asked the strange man waiting in the sitting room. He was approximately six feet tall, lean with black hair hanging to his collar, and brilliant green eyes. He wore deep red robes, not unlike those Harry had bought weeks before at Diagon Alley, yet of much nicer fabric.

"Sorry about calling you 'boy', Harry. I know how much you hate that. I personally hate sounding like that fat tub of..." The man stopped to calm himself, making Harry grin slightly at the thought of someone insulting his uncle. "As to your question... I'm you, Harry."

After opening his mind to magic, accepting this as fact wasn't a stretch for the child. "Are you from the future?"

"No, I'm sort of from the past… blimey, this is complicated. No wonder I didn't understand me."

Young Harry was quite confused at this point. "If you're me from the past, shouldn't you be younger then me?"

"See what I mean? Complicated." The older man ran his hand through his hair, trying to work out how to explain. He suddenly threw his hands out wildly, trying to will the younger Harry to understand. "Okay I'm you. I'm older. A lot older. Granted I don't look it, but-"

"You look a lot older to me." Interrupted younger Harry, with just a bit of snark.

"Oi!" Older Harry exclaimed. "Fine, is this better?"

His features suddenly blurred and he quickly shrunk, leaving two identical eleven year old Harry Potters facing each other. With a wave of his hand, the older Harry's robes shrank and adjusted to fit.

"How… how did you do that?" younger Harry asked, his voice filled with amazement.

"We are a metamorphmagus… Well, that doesn't quite describe it. More of a shape-shifter."

"Wow." Harry had a huge smile on his face. "So that means I can do that too?"

"You'll need to be trained first. Sadly, not by me, sorry kiddo. It's going to take some time. Come with me." Older Harry led younger into the kitchen, where the dining table had been pushed back, leaving a large open area. On the floor where the table previously sat, was a large circle drawn in what older Harry knew to be fairy blood. The circle was surrounded by long twisting sequences of runes and glyphs in multiple ancient languages.

"What's that for?" Younger asked. "Aunt Petunia won't like this in her kitchen."

"Don't worry," Older replied with a grimace, thinking of all the things he wanted to do to 'Aunt Petunia's kitchen,' not limited to setting it on fire. "I'll clean it up, she'll be none the wiser. As for this, it's a ritual circle. I'm going to use it to send you back in time."

"What!?" Younger Harry exclaimed with an equal amount of fear and excitement. "Why? And how far?"

"Far enough." Older replied cryptically. "Harry, you're going to Hogwarts this year, and they may have told you that the school is the safest place to be, but that's not entirely true. The magical world is a dangerous place, and there are people out there who want to hurt you for things that we can't even remember. People who have many years of magical training on you. Sadly, you are woefully unprepared for entering that

world."

"Who would want to hurt me? I thought that the guy who wanted to kill me was dead himself."

"I don't know, Harry." The older man with the younger face looked worried. "You have to understand, I'm you. When I was eleven, an older me came and sent me back in time. After I send you back, I'm taking your place, going to Hogwarts. In the past, I left England so I wouldn't be tempted to interfere with certain events I knew had happened. You can be part of history, but you can't CHANGE history. A fine distinction, I know, but you need to be careful."

"How am I going to know what not to do?" The young boy asked.

"Don't worry, kiddo, I'm you, remember? I've already done what you're about to do. You'll be fine. That's the fun part about time travel. You can't actually change anything, because anything you do in the past, I already did when I was you."

The boy-who-lived gave his older self a look he recognized all too well. "I know. It's all real confusing. Don't worry, it'll work itself out, just kinda go with it. Anyway, when you arrive, you'll meet someone who will begin training you. Are you ready?"

"I guess so." Younger Harry replied nervously. "Do I need anything?"

"No. Wait! Yes. Maybe. Where's Hedwig?"

"Upstairs in her cage. Uncle Vernon won't allow me to let her out."

The older Harry growled, with a deep grimace that showed he seemed truly offended by that fact. "Bring her down here. Don't worry about clothes or your wand, they'll get you kitted out after you arrive."

Younger Harry ran up the stairs, and carefully carried Hedwig in her cage back down. Smiling, older Harry opened the back door of four privet drive, and with a soft hoot a second Hedwig flew in the house, landing on his shoulder. She looked the same, yet seemed somehow sleeker to the younger Harry.

Older Hedwig looked at younger. "Hoot."

"Hoot hoot." Said younger, surprised at seeing two Harry's and a second of herself.

"Hoot hoot hoot." Replied the older owl.

"Enough of that." Said the older Harry. "We don't have time for you flirt with yourself."

"Is that what she was doing?" The younger Harry asked.

"I forgot," Said the older. "You can't understand her yet. Oh well, that will come later. Let's get you on your way."

Before he could ask any more questions, younger Harry was ushered into the runic ritual circle by the older. "Hold tight to the cage, this is going to be a bit... swirly."

"Swirly?" Harry asked, mystified.

"You'll see."

Older Harry knelt before the circle, placing his hands on two of the larger rune sequences, and began chanting. The circle started to glow, first a soft pinkish red, quickly brightening to a blinding white. Magic filled the space, the air starting to feel like thick syrup. The syrupy air began rotating, slowly at first, then faster and faster, matching the increasing chanting speed. The spinning air glowed brightly as the magic gained more power, blocking the younger Harry's view of anything outside the circle. Hedwig let out a strangled hoot, frightened by the swirling magic. With a blinding flash, the magic dissipated, leaving young Harry panting, feeling oddly drained.

"Oh… Swirly." He muttered to himself, looking around. He was standing in a dark hallway, the walls made of black stone. "Well, I guess it worked."

He picked a direction and started to walk, but didn't get very far. Out of thin air, with a soft crack sound, a man appeared. He had short black, slightly graying hair, and sharp features. He was wearing what appeared to be a collaboration of leather and metal armor, holding a long wooden staff in one hand, and a wand in the other. The wand was pointed unerringly at Harry.

"You there, boy. What are you doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

"I'm sorry sir," Harry replied. "I was sent here to meet someone who is supposed to train me in magic."

The man was looking at him suspiciously. "What's your name, boy?"

"Harry Potter, sir." He expected the man to recognize him, after the greeting he received in Diagon Alley.

"Well met, child. My name is Merlin."


	2. Year 01 Chapter 02 To The Bank

AN: I've been writing this story for a while, and am currently in the middle of year three, so Starting tomorrow, I will probably post all of year one, then wait until I finish three to post year two, then wait until i'm done four to post year three, and so forth.

Chapter 2

"Well," Harry commented, looking down at the still smoking ritual circle. "That was fun."

"Hoot." Replied Hedwig, with a flap of her wings, as she glided off of Harry's shoulder. The air around her seemed to ripple, and suddenly where there was once a bird there now stood a blonde woman with bright blue eyes, that appeared to be in her mid twenties, wearing dark blue robes, a style of which matched Harry's.

Harry himself quickly shifted back to his older form, adjusting his robes as he went.

"Was that as weird for you as it was for me?" The human Hedwig asked.

"Eh." Harry shrugged. "Just strange being on this side of the conversation." He wrapped his arms around the woman, kissing her soundly, before turning back to the runic circle. With a short wave of his hand, the circle was gone, and the table quickly returned to it's prior position.

"Now what?" Hedwig asked, leaning against Harry's back, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"First thing's first. Have to build the blood ward tap." He led her upstairs to the smallest bed room. With a few quick waves, he had the room mostly cleared of his cousin's broken junk, leaving only a few random items that he could use to transfigure. He sat in front of the rickety desk, pulling out the single drawer.

"Hand me that armless action figure, would you, darling?"

Hedwig passed him the doll, enraptured. "I so enjoy watching you work."

He grinned, tossing her a wink as the doll changed into a shallow bowl. Then, pulling a bag out of one of the large pockets of his robe, Harry explained as he worked. "First, the runes." He pulled from the bag a rune carving pen, which was basically a wooden handle with a metal fountain pen head and a diamond tip. He looked around the room, struggling to recall vague memories from long ago. "Wand... wand. Where's my wand?"

"Here." Hedwig passed him the magical focus, which she found under the small pillow on the bed.

"Ah yes, I remember. Forgot how excited I was about learning magic. Always kept the wand nearby, when I could. Even slept with the thing."

Harry held the wand near the tip of the rune pen, causing the pen tip to glow white hot.

"I see you finally learned not to heat the carving pen wandlessly." Hedwig commented, with a laugh. "Tired of burning your fingertip?"

"I took the time to block the spell detection wards around this house, I might as well make use of my wand while I can."

He returned his attention to his work, flipping the bowl over to carve on the bottom. "This rune set will keep the bowl from reverting, as most transfiguration is temporary."

After running his right index finger over the completed carvings, causing them to glow softly as they absorbed the magic he funneled into them, he flipped the bowl right side up, and started scratching along it's inner lip. "Now the runes to link the bowl to the blood ward around the house, and a set to power a stasis charm that will prevent the blood from congealing. Pass me that... what the hell was Dudley doing with an easy bake oven? Whatever, hand it here please."

Harry quickly transfigured the oven into a crystal slightly smaller than a billiard ball, which he started to carve into as well. "This crystal is what will power the whole thing."

"And this will trick the wards into thinking you are still here?" Hedwig asked.

"Yes. The wards are powered by my blood, so I just need to add some to the bowl with the powering gem in the center, which will be imbued with my magical signature. Well, that of 11 year old me." Harry shifted back into his younger form, before slowly drawing his wand across the palm of his hand, cutting deep enough to draw blood. After filling the bowl enough to cover the bottom, he healed the cut, then began funneling his magic into the crystal, which he held in his hand. He set the glowing crystal into the center of the small pool, and continued speaking.

"Then we can leave this god forsaken place, and only come back to shut it off before I leave for the train each year, and turn it back on at the end of each school year. Whoever is watching these wards will never be the wiser. And I am... Done."

He set the blood filled bowl into the open desk drawer, closing said drawer carefully once the blood tap was in place.

He stood, and spent a moment carving runes into the bedroom door frame. After completing his work, he funneled power into the runes and felt the muggle repelling ward activate, which would keep his relatives from thinking about him long enough to notice he was no longer there.

Turning toward the window, Harry held his hand out in front of him, and cast a complicated detection spell. "The magic suppression barrier outside is dissipating just as we calculated. It's a good thing too, I'd hate to have to deal with the ministry of magic or, for that matter, who ever put the detection wards around this house. It'll be gone in ten minutes. Let's get out of here." After a quick check around to make sure he wasn't missing anything, he shrunk and pocketed his trunk. Hedwig shifted back into her bird form, and hopped to the window sill, which Harry opened.

He pressed his right hand to his chest just below his left collar bone, pushing magic into the runes carved there, activating the sequences inscribed down his spine and around his waist. After a quick disillusionment charm to hide him from view, he leapt out the open window, the variation of the broom flying runes on his body keeping him from plummeting to the ground. After shutting the window, they flew away from Privet Drive, on their way to London, and the inevitable future.

Landing in an alley across from the leaky cauldron, Harry canceled the disillusionment, becoming visible, as Hedwig shifted into her human form, this time shorter, with wavy brown hair, dark green eyes, and thinner features. Harry shifted his own form to be older, more in his mid thirties, with wavy, sandy blonde hair past his shoulders, dark brown eyes, and aristocratic features.

"London is bigger then I remember."

"Well, you were last here was over a hundred years ago." Hedwig pointed out, with a smirk.

"Has it been that long already?" He asked rhetorically. "Feels like it was just yesterday."

Hedwig smiled, reminiscing, and led the way across the street to the pub, which was quite a bit more run down looking then either remembered.

"I guess that's what a hundred years will do to you." Harry mused aloud.

"What's that?"

"Nothing. Let's get to the bank."

They headed through the back of the pub and the transforming wall, into Diagon alley proper. Stopping in his tracks he looked at the wizarding shops and came to a realization. "How... Sad. London has gotten huge in the last hundred years... yet Diagon Alley is almost the exact same. Do these people have no interest in growth?"

"On first look, no," Hedwig replied. "But let's hold off judgment, until we see a bit more."

They walked hand-in-hand to the large white building run by goblins, looking into shop windows along the way. Hedwig pulled Harry to a stop in front of Eeylops Owl Emporium, with a small smile on her face.

"I remember when you first got me from there. I'll have to thank Hagrid some day. Never thought I could be this happy. Then again, I was just an owl back then." She kissed Harry softly, before they started walking again.

Once past the bronze doors of Gringotts, the second set in silver gleamed in the mid day light, the warning against theft standing out in relief.

Enter, Stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

The goblin guards flanking the doors looked less then pleased being there but still nodded to Harry and Hedwig as they passed. The long marble hall bustled with activity as wizards and witches were led to and fro by grumpy looking goblins. After a long wait in line, the couple were finally able to speak to the Counter goblin. Harry knew goblin etiquette, the Counter goblins were the lowest rung of their society, those forced to deal with humans on a daily basis. They expected to be respected as a race, yet not too respected as their low status demands. It was a delicate balance.

Speaking in clear Gobbledygook, the Goblin language, he attempted to keep that social balance, by not asking for a name, instead referring to him by generic title. "Hello, Counter Goblin. Call someone to take me to an account manager."

The goblin in question seemed quite surprised that a wizard spoke their language, let alone seemed to know their caste system. He quickly called for an escort to take Harry and Hedwig to an Account Manager, followed by stating the proper respectful farewell, to someone of higher power then himself. "May your gold always flow."

"And may your enemies bleed freely." Harry responded properly.

The couple were led to a waiting room that was larger then the Dursley's sitting room, decorated in gold statues, with armor suits and sharp weapons mounted on the walls. Obviously an Account Manager of high power, as the gobin's place in their society is based on wealth, and demanded they show off that wealth.

The escorting goblin knocked on the door, then left with out a word to the two he led there. That was the goblin way, no time to mince words, if there's money to be made. The large solid gold door in front of them opened silently on well maintained hinges. "Enter," Came a voice from within.

Harry and Hedwig did so, she keeping behind him, as in goblin society women were to be protected and kept safe, while the men made the money, or went to war. The office was even more opulent then the waiting room, the walls lined with intricate jewelery pieces, and tapestries that appeared to be woven from gold and silver thread. The goblin account manager sat behind a large desk that was made of heavy wood, covered in carvings filled with molten gemstones. Behind the desk, shelves lined the wall, loaded with numerous items of all kind, and hundreds of books, probably filled with the financial information of the richest families.

Harry bowed deeply before the Account Manager, speaking again in Gobbledygook. "Well met holder of my gold. May luck smile upon you."

"And may rivers run red with your power." The Goblin replied, before switching to English. "I am Account Manager Bloodclaw. What can the account managers office do for you today, Mr...?"

Harry knew he had earned a bit of respectfrom his knowledge of goblin society. How much respect was shown by how much assistance was offered. If Bloodclaw had said 'What can I do" it meant only he was offering help, where as had he said something like 'What can Gringotts do' showed that the entire bank was offering him assistance. Harry just hoped he wasn't about to ruin it by showing that he was hiding his identity. With but a thought, he shifted to his eleven year old form, causing Bloodclaw to appear quite surprised.

"I apologize for the deception, Account Manager Bloodclaw. My identity is rather high profile, so I like to hide in plain sight when I can. It is my understanding Gringotts can be trusted to keep my presence here confidential."

"Gringotts takes it's clients privacy with utmost respect, Mr. Potter. Now, what can Gringotts London help you with today?"

Harry was rather surprised that he was being offered more respect within the bank, instead of less, but assumed that's what the face of the boy-who-lived gets you.

"I need my parents will executed, access to my family vaults, and an account access test done."

"Of course Mister Potter. That isn't a problem, please have a seat." Bloodclaw gestured to the two chairs before his desk, where Harry and Hedwig had remained standing until that moment, knowing goblin etiquette demanded they wait to be offered a seat. Bloodclaw stood, pulling items off a shelf behind his desk. He set a crystal tipped rune covered quill on the desk next to a long parchment roll, which he unraveled to show a very large and intricate web of names and numbers. He then referenced a thick book with a symbol on the cover Harry recognized as the Potter coat of arms, a shield with a sword and wand crossed over the it.

"It seems the will was executed automatically upon your eleventh birthday, leaving you everything that is contained in the Potter trust vault, the Potter Family vault and Lily Evan's personal vault. Also left to you are two properties, one in Southern Scotland, containing the remains of Potter manor, and one in Godric's Hallow, containing what was at the time of the will writing, a cottage, which was sadly mostly destroyed the night of your parents passing." He shut the book setting it back on the shelf it originally came from. "There should be port keys to those properties in the Potter Family vault, Along with a complete listing of all items and liquid wealth, and any information on your current investments. If you have any questions on them, don't hesitate to ask me.

"Now, for the account access test I need you to take the quill and prick the palm of your hand with it, so it absorbs your blood, then set it on it's tip on this parchment." He gestured toward the web drawing, unaware that Harry and Hedwig knew full well what the document was. After all, they were present when it was first created. "This test will show you what vaults you have access to only. It will not show you any titles or families you are tied to directly. For that you need to request a bloodline heir test."

Harry took the quill in his right hand and stabbed himself in the left, watching as the crystal tip turned red as it drew his blood into itself.

"Lot of blood drawing today..." He mumbled softly, causing Hedwig to snicker beside him. Once the crystal was fully red he set the quill tip onto the document, and watched in fascination as it began scribbling on the parchment. As the writing continued, Bloodclaw seemed more and more amazed. The quill finally finished writing, and fell on it's side, still at last.

"Oh my." He said softly. "Mr. Potter, this document is... basically a map of every vault in Gringotts London, along with every person in the magical world who was access to one. I have been doing this for a very long time, and have not seen it take that long... ever. People who take this test on average have access to two vaults, it seems you have access to..." He looked carefully over the vault map. "Eleven."

Bloodclaw slid his finger along the vault map, following the lines connecting Harry's name to the different vaults he now had access to, from the most recent on. "The Potter trust vault, the Potter Family vault and Evans vault as we already discussed. Then it gets... surprising. The vault of Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, the Hogwarts school vault, the Vault of Cadmus Perverell, the vault of Ignottius Perverell, the vault of Morgana LeFay, the vault of... oh my... Merlin Ambrosius. This is most unusual."

"Is that good or bad?" Harry asked, a slight smirk on his face, already having known what vaults he would be able to access.

"Merlin Ambrosius helped Goblin King Gringott to build the first goblin-run bank almost fourteen hundred years ago. His vault has laid unclaimed since his passing. I can only imagine the amount of interest a vault gains in fourteen hundred years. I-"

Before Bloodclaw could say anymore, the door to his office slammed open, and four heavily armed goblins entered forming a line between Harry, Hedwig, and the door. Behind the guards entered a regally dressed goblin wearing Gold armor with a red cape flowing behind him.

"My lord!" Bloodclaw quickly dropped to one knee, bowing before the goblin who had entered. Following suit, Harry and Hedwig also dropped to a knee and bowed before the obviously powerful goblin leader. Ignoring the humans for the moment, he addressed the subservient bank employee, speaking in Gobbledygook.

"Account manager Bloodclaw. Why is it I was sitting in my office, when an alarm alerted me to you giving someone in this office access to the First Vault?"

"My lord, I performed a vault access test on Mister Potter." Bloodclaw explained, grovelling, not looking up from the floor. "The test showed he has access allowance to the First Vault, along with ten other vaults."

The Goblin leader addressed the humans in the room for the first time. "Harry Potter I presume?"

"Yes, my lord." Harry replied, speaking in the goblins native language, while also not looking up at the goblin.

"I am King Ragnok, leader of the Goblin nations of Europe and the greater Asia's." This information made Harry swallow hard. The being before him was one of the most powerful Goblins in the world. If you upset him, you'd be lucky if your were granted a fast death. "You may rise, please return to your seats. Rise, Account Manager Bloodclaw, and show me this account access test."

"Thank you, Lord Ragnok." Harry and Hedwig both intoned as they returned to their seats.

Bloodclaw stood by his desk, not sitting again, leaving the chair open for his King should he choose to sit. While looking over the vault map, Lord Ragnok was less surprised by how many Harry could access, then he otherwise would have been. He expected nothing less then a long and wealthy list of accounts from one so respectful of goblin society. Knowing that the access list could not be cheated, he had no other option then to offer any assistance to the extremely wealthy wizard who sat before him.

"So Mister Potter, What can the goblin people help you with?"


	3. Year 01 Chapter 03 On A Train

AN: Poll, Please post on reviews with your answer. Should I post one chapter at a time for as long as it takes to get the story out, or should I post the entire Hogwarts year at a time, then take a few months off posting, while I write the entirety of the next year? If I don't get sufficient votes, I will make the decision my oneself.

Chapter 03:

The Sun was setting when the couple finally left the bank. It took hours to wade through all the paperwork to claim the vaults, and they were both quite hungry. After a delicious chicken dinner, they left the cauldron, using a port key to return to their home, a six hundred year old ocean front french villa. The building sat just yards from the beach, on fifty acres of land, including a Quidditch pitch, magical wildlife stocked forest, and Hedwig's hand tended rose garden. The interior was just as loved and tended, as every piece of furniture was hand picked by the couple as they made the house into a home.

Two days later, the sun rose on a cold September the first morning. Dragging himself out of the warm bed, and away from the even warmer human Hedwig, it was almost enough to make him rethink everything coming. Feeling his emotions through their familiar bond, she looked up at him standing over her. "What's wrong, honey?"

"Why are we doing this? I can gain my mastery in every class Hogwarts offers, and some they don't, yet I'm supposed to go play a first year?"

"Because everyone's expecting an eleven year old Harry Potter to attend Hogwarts this year. If you don't, it'll cause mass panic and a world wide man hunt for you. Plus if half of what we've heard about Minister Fudge is true, the second you don't show up, he'll try to claim the Potter fortune for himself. And we both know it doesn't matter how much money we have, the money your parents and ancestors made will always be special to you."

Harry sighed heavily. "That guy is such a tool, trying to take my wizengamot seats. Just because no one claimed them for a few hundred years, doesn't mean he has any right to them."

"Five hundred and fifty eight." Hedwig corrected.

"Whatever." Harry grumbled, climbing back into the bed, wrapping his arms and legs around her. "So warm..."

"Get up, you lazy git. You need to get ready to go. We still have to turn off the ward tap at the Dursley's." Hedwig pushed him away from her, laughing hard as he flailed his arms about, and fell off the edge of the bed.

"Ow!" he leapt up grimacing. "And why aren't you getting up?"

"I'm going to be an owl riding on your shoulder. I don't think anyone will care if my hair isn't thoroughly combed."

"Cheater." Harry grumbled as he headed into the attached bathroom.

An hour later the couple port-keyed to the park near number four privet drive, then walked back to his relatives house. Hedwig riding his shoulder as an owl, they silently slipped up the stairs. The blood ward tap was quickly disabled, then Harry headed downstairs carrying Hedwig in a transfigured cage.

"Uncle Vernon, you said you would take me to the train station today, so I could get to school."

His uncle was quickly turning red. "Don't tell me what I said, boy. I'll take you when I'm good and ready."

"Aright. Train leaves at eleven, so we still have time yet." His uncle just grunted in response, ignoring Harry further. He turned and headed back up the stairs. The moment he entered his room, his uncle was shouting for him to hurry up. "I swear he just waited to give himself a reason to yell." He muttered to Hedwig as he headed down the stairs again.

Harry carefully loaded Hedwig's cage into the back seat, and climbed in after her. He hated keeping her in a cage, but would have to when around his uncle. The entirety of the ride he was going to be stuck next to his obese cousin who was being taken into London to get the tail removed, before he started at Smeltings Academy.

"Funny way to get to a wizards school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?" Vernon chuckled at his own perceived wit.

"No, magic carpets were made illegal years ago." Harry responded monotonously, not even looking in his uncle's direction. Vernon growled softly, not liking the lack of fear Harry was showing.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"North." Harry muttered, really not wanting to give any specifics to someone with such a deep hatred of all things magic. They rode in silence the rest of the way, avoiding so much as looking at one another. He knew in a clinical way that his relatives had tortured him for the first eleven years of his life, but at this point the memories felt like they were so long ago, he could barely remember any specifics. He just wanted to be away from them. Their volatile dislike was almost a physical feeling seeping off of them into the air.

The moment the car stopped at King's Cross Station, he had hold of Hedwig's cage, and was out of the car before any of his relatives could get out a single word, quickly loosing himself in the crowd. As he approached the entrance gate to platform nine and three quarters, Harry could feel the tingle of magic that emanated from it. The temporal phase shift gate was a piece of art, as far as Harry was concerned. It took all four of the founders working together to create a gateway that could take an entire train platform and everyone who enters it just a second out of synch with the rest of the world.

Harry almost laughed aloud at the idea that the ministry Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries made time turners and thought themselves on the cutting edge of time research. A wizard using a turner to manipulate time was the equivalent of a gorilla discovering the theory of relativity using an abacus. No one knew the potential of time manipulation better then Harry.

Glancing at Hedwig, who was watching him with her wide owl eyes, he felt the need to speak his main thought. "Here we go." Once through, the platform was noisy and crowded, as expected. Owls hooted and a cat yowled as someone accidentally stepped on it's tail. He quickly found an empty compartment, and settled in, opening the cage door, and letting Hedwig hurriedly hop out and settle comfortably on Harry's leg. Out the window, he could hear an upset boy who hadn't quite grown out of his baby fat yet, telling his grandmother that he couldn't find his toad. "Poor kid, stuck with a toad. Those fell out of fashion years ago."

The boy's Grandmother was none other then Augusta Grave nae-Longbottom. With a grin and a laugh, Harry glanced at Hedwig. "Remember how flexible she was when she was younger?"

Hedwig let off a low happy hoot, and with a single flap of her wings, hopped up onto Harry's shoulder. He pulled open the compartment door, vanished the owl cage, and moved out into the aisle. He stuck his hand out, willing a wandless summoning charm to bring the toad to him. Once it was in his hand, he conjured a cage for the toad, and shredded some loose parchment from his trunk for bedding. Soon the toad looked quite happy. Harry stepped out of the train carrying the new toad cage, and headed toward the still frantic looking boy.

"Hi. I heard you say out the window that you were missing a toad. Is this him?" He held up the cage.

"Trevor!" The boy exclaimed. "But where did the cage come from?"

"Oh that's mine. Don't worry, I don't need it."

"That's very kind of you, young man." Augusta spoke up.

Harry smiled at the rather serous looking woman. "It was no problem, ma'am. I'm happy to have helped."

"Introduce yourself, dear." She told her grandson.

"Oh, um... Neville." The boy said, quietly, looking quite embarrassed. "Neville Longbottom."

"Hi Neville. I'm Harry Potter."

The somewhat pudgy boy froze, looking too shocked to say anything.

"I should have known, Mr. Potter. You look just like your father, poor soul. Your father was a dear friend of my son Frank. You and my dear Neville used to play together as babes."

"Really?" Asked Neville quietly, while Harry just smiled at them both.

"Well, it was a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Longbottom. I'm in an empty compartment, if you want to sit with me, Neville."

He led the shy boy back to the compartment he had sat in, only to find it packed with a group of giggling girls. "Huh. I guess not. Let's find another."

They headed into the next train car only to find a compartment with a single occupant, a bushy-haired brunet girl, with her nose stuck deep into a book. Harry knocked on the door, then pulled it open. "Hi. Do you mind if we sit with you?"

The girl looked quite hopeful as they entered the cabin. "Of course not, there's plenty of room. I'm Hermione Granger. Are you first years also?"

"We are. He's Neville Longbottom, and I'm Harry Potter."

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century._"

"Am I really?" He asked sharply. Hermione's face fell, like someone had just kicked her puppy. Hedwig, still sitting on Harry's shoulder smacked him on the back of his head with her wing and hooted at him sharply, telling him to be nice. The girl obviously was trying very hard to make friends.

"I'm sorry, 'Mione. I just don't really like the idea of books printing my private life for all the world to read about." Harry sat next to the girl, with Neville sitting across from them. With a jerk, the train started moving.

Hermione looked relieved that the boys weren't leaving, or making fun of her. "Oh, it's okay, I understand, I'm just so excited about all this. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough."

"I'm sure you'll do great. Though you'll have to compete against me for top of the class. I'm muggle raised myself. How about you, Neville?" Harry asked, trying to include his new shy friend in the conversation.

Surprised at being included, he stuttered a bit. "I- I'm um... p- pure blood. Both m- my p- parents were magical."

Sensing a painful subject for the boy, Harry quickly moved the conversation forward. "I was quite surprised to find out about magic, but have been practising a number of spells myself. Everything I have tried so far has worked."

"You're not supposed to use your wand outside of school. You'll get in trouble." Hermione said, sounding worried.

"I know, that's why I haven't been using my wand. I-"

Before Harry could say anything farther, the door opened, admitting a tall, thin, and gangling, red-haired boy with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose, a black spot right on the end of that nose. Ignoring the others in the cabin, the red-haired boy looked right at Harry. "Can I sit in here, everywhere else is full."

Harry immediately knew that the boy was lying. The magic of the train was designed to expand so the train is never full. All the same, as the muggle-raised first year that people thought him to be, he couldn't really say anything. "Sure, come on in, there's room."

"I'm Ron Weasley." he said, to Harry, again ignoring the others in the compartment.

"That's Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and I'm Harry Potter."

"Really?" he looked gob-smacked. "Are you really Harry Potter?"

Harry nodded, starting to get frustrated on the way the boy was ignoring his new friends.

"And have you really got — you know…" He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry really wanted to pop the kid one, and had to remind himself that he was an eleven year old boy. With a quick thought, Harry willed away the scar that was apart of his 'eleven year old harry' disguise. The scar had been hidden behind his long bangs, that he kept as part of the disguise for that very reason.

"Got what?" Harry asked, faking looking confused.

"You know... the scar." Ron said with a tone like he was talking to someone not quite all there in the head.

"I have a bunch of scars." Harry responded, secretly laughing inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a slight upturning to Hermione's lips. He was glad she was enjoying watching him take the goofy kid down a notch. "I have a big one on my elbow, got caught on the rose bush by my house, once."

Hedwig tittered from her place on Harry's shoulder. She remembered that roll in the rose bushes. He had cut up his arm, and she had thorn scratches down her back. Unfortunately neither of them were wearing clothes at the time. Thanks to their metamorphic shape-shifter gifts, neither had any permanent scars, though they could make scars appear and disappear anywhere on their bodies at will.

"No!" Ron was starting to get frustrated, his voice raising to a shout. Harry could tell how easy it was to push the kid's buttons. "The curse scar! On your head!"

Before Harry could object, Ron grabbed his hair, moving aside the bangs, looking for the scar. Hedwig didn't appreciate the angry boy manhandling her Harry. She screeched loudly, flapping her wings at Ron, causing him to jump back, helped by Harry giving him a slight shove. "Oi! Have you ever heard of personal space? Back off!"

At this point Ron looked really confused. "But... she said... I mean... uh... I heard... Ah. I get it. You're not really Harry Potter. Very funny."

With that, Ron stormed out of the compartment, leaving the others looking very confused. Once the boy was gone, Harry reformed the scar on his head.

"What a git." Neville said, then turned bright red, as he realized he commented aloud.

"I agree." Harry added, grinning at Neville.

"That boy was quite rude." Hermione noted. "I'm glad he's not staying here with us."

"Same here. I just hope we don't end up in the same house as him." Harry said. "I'd hate having to share a dorm with him."

"Do either of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad."

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Hedwig ruffle her feathers in a show of annoyance at hearing Ravenclaw house be referenced as 'not too bad.'

"Oh I don't know," Harry said. "I hear only the smartest get into Ravenclaw, though I definitely think you are brave enough for Gryffindor."

Hermione blushed brightly. "You think so? Anyway, What about you, Neville?"

"I- well... both my parents were in Gryffindor, but I don't think I'm brave enough." He blushed again. The kids face spent so much time turning red, Harry would have almost suspected him of being a metamorphmagus. "I'll probably end up in Hufflepuff."

"Hey, don't put yourself down, Nev." Harry tried to console the nearly distraught boy.

"I was so scared, I barely got on the train." He didn't know why he was confiding in his two new friends, yet for some reason, he could tell that they would never judge him.

"You were scared, yet you're still here. If you ask me, being brave isn't not being scared, it's being scared, but doing it anyway." Harry knew quite well what Godric Gryffindor looked for in students. "I'll tell you what, though. If you want to be in Gryffindor, then when you get called for the sorting, you take a deep breath, march up to the sorting hat, stick it on your head, and order, heck, demand the hat put you in Gryffindor. Show the hat you mean business."

Hermione smiled, seeing the way Neville took a deep breath and seemed to come into himself after hearing Harry's words, his shoulders moving back, and his chin up. It was so different from the Neville she met at the beginning of the train ride.

The three students sat chatting for a while longer before the compartment door opened, again without anyone knocking.

Three boys entered, the one in front had a pale pointed face, and white blonde hair, slicked back with way too much hair goop, reminiscent of a white ferret or rodent of some kind. The other boys were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter is in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

Harry was trying to remember where he'd seen the blonde boy before, but the memories of his first visit to Diagon Alley were so long ago, as to be vague and lacking any clear detail, even with his occlumency organization of his mind which allowed him instant recall and a photographic memory.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Harry asked, giving up trying to remember.

"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. We spoke at Madam Malkin's. You didn't tell me you were Harry Potter."

Harry recalled talking to the boy who came across as extremely stuck up. "Yeah, sorry, lot on my mind at the time. What can we do for you?"

Malfoy looked at Neville and Hermione, with an obvious sneer on his face. "You'll soon find out some Wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.

Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like them, and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."

Thanks to his many years practising occlumency, Harry was able to control his temper. That didn't mean he didn't want to rip the snooty little ponce into a pile of his individual organs. Standing from his seat, he slowly and steadily, clamped his right hand around Draco's throat and started squeezing. Draco quickly turned purple from lack of air. With a quick shove, Malfoy and his two stooges were in the corridor. Harry shot a glare at the blonde boy, before slamming the door, and wandlessly sealing it.

Shaking herself out of shock, Hermione quickly started to worry. "You shouldn't be fighting. You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

"I should rather let him threaten me, insult my friends, and drag my parents name through the mud?" Harry asked, taking a deep breath and calming his internally raging emotions. "I'm not too worried. I could have done a lot worse. Thanks for worrying about me, Hermione. I'll be okay."

With a sharp grin at Her, he expanded his trunk and grabbed out a pair of student robes to pull on over his clothing.

"What is that?" Hermione asked. "That's not a standard student trunk."

"I know. I found it in my parents bank vault." Harry lied. "It's a military-grade seven compartment trunk."

It was actually a thirteen compartment trunk, but only seven were accessible from the outside. Harry felt no need to share the extras with anyone yet, or the fact that he had to get it specially from a man in Italy that supplied the International Confederation of Wizards emergency response squad, what was in essence the magical military.

"Anyway," he said with a grin. " You should get ready. We'll be there soon."


	4. Year 01 Chapter 04 First Feast

Chapter 04:

Harry sat in the train compartment watching the madness that was all the students trying to leave at once. He had insisted that his friends wait until the crowed thinned a bit. They were among the smallest students on the train, being first years, and would nearly be trampled by the bigger kids. Also, Harry didn't want to risk Hedwig being hurt in the press of bodies. Once the crowd had cleared a bit, the three friends exited the train, and headed to where they could see Hagrid towering above the students.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry? C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

Harry looked upon the castle he hadn't seen the outside of in what felt like many hundreds of years, the spires blocking out the partial moon in the sky, leaving Harry with a reminder of just how much power was contained within the single building.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry quickly claimed a boat for himself and his two friends. They were joined by a bubbly blonde girl who introduced herself as Lavender Brown. Her excited voice stood out against the shivering silence of the fellow first years.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"

The fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent once again, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. As they entered the perimeter of the castle itself, Harry could feel the tingle of the protective wards in the back of his mind, and could immediately tell there was something very wrong. The wards which were created and powered by the rune schemes inscribed into the very stonework of the castle's foundation were still there, but they seemed almost useless. The castle was surrounded by improperly layered wards that did more damage to the protections of the castle then any attacking force could. Harry could feel the magic in the different wards were each resonating differently, meaning they were each set by different people, probably past headmasters. Harry sighed, dropping his head into his hands. Just because they were good teachers, or headmasters, didn't make them professional warders. He expected it would probably take years for him to fix the mess they made of his castle, especially as he had to do it in secret, while also pretending to be a first year student.

They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

Finally they walked up a passageway in the rock lit by Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? Good." Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The door swung open at once. A tall, stern faced, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. Harry had to control his emotions to hide the smile threatening to break out on his face. He hadn't seen Minerva McGonagall since she was in her early teens herself.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide, leading the students into the entry hall. A deep sense of nostalgia swept over Harry, as he looked around a hall that hadn't changed a bit sense the last time he was there, so long ago. "Home sweet home."

He was so distracted by the way he was reminiscing, that he didn't notice the way Hermione was looking at him, as if trying to solve a puzzle.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagstone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall, that was once used as the teachers family dining room. The students crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

McGonagall welcomed the first year students to the castle, and gave a pleasant, though obviously rehearsed speech about the school house system. After the speech, she stepped out, giving the students a few moments to 'smarten themselves up.'

Harry rolled his eyes, as he heard Ron Weasley claiming they had to wrestle a troll to get sorted. He couldn't help but snort, which drew the git-boy's attention.

"You think you're so smart, what do you think we'll have to do?"

Harry sighed at the aggressiveness in the boys voice. "We sit down, put on the sorting hat, and it'll assign us a house. No trolls."

"A hat? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You are obviously muggle-born, coming up with something like that... Sorting hat. Right."

Harry just rolled his eyes. The boy was quickly earning himself a spot on his black list next to Draco Malfoy. Sadly, they were both just inbred eleven year olds, so he couldn't just kill them. That didn't mean he couldn't embarrass them.

"I'll tell you what. I'll make a bet. If there's a sorting hat in there," Harry pointed toward the great hall, "Then you have to wear a girls uniform to dinner for a week. Skirt and all. If I'm wrong, then I will."

Harry made sure to say this loud enough to draw in the one person he bet could anger Ron enough to agree. Draco Malfoy spoke up. "Weasley in a skirt? I'd pay to see that. Though I may have to give him the money first, for him to be able to afford it."

With a growl, Ron shook Harry's hand hoping to get the kid claiming to be Harry Potter into a skirt in front of the whole school.

Professor McGonagall soon returned, chasing away some school ghosts that had startled the first years, then escorted them into the great hall. Harry followed along absently, enjoying the beauty of the enchanted ceiling. The professor soon set out a short stool with a hat on it.

"Told you." Harry said loud enough so the other first year could hear. "Will that skirt be pleated or plain?"

Ron just growled in Harry's direction, and turned away. After a less then rhyming song (what do you expect from a hat), The students began getting sorted into houses. Harry watched the placement of the students one by one, catching the occasional name he recognized, including Susan Bones, who was probably related to the head of the Ministry's Department of Law Enforcement, and Terry Boot, who's family ran a business in Diagon Alley that was owned by the Potter family, well, by Harry now. After that Lavender Brown, the girl they rode in the boat with was sorted into Gryffindor.

Soon came the name 'Granger, Hermione.', who ran forward quite eagerly, and was quickly sorted into Gryffindor. She seemed quite happy as she ran to the table full of clapping children, and watched as soon Neville Longbottom was called. With a deep breath, he held his head high and marched to the hat, sat down and jammed it onto his head. The boy had a look of fierce concentration on his face, and Harry could almost swear he saw the hat smile before calling 'Gryffindor.' The look on Neville's face was ecstatic as he headed to the applauding table, and sat by Hermione.

Harry continued watching the names called, including a swaggering Draco Malfoy, and a set of female twins who ended up in separate houses, until finally his name was called.

"Potter, Harry."

The students of the school were quickly whispering amongst themselves, shocked to see the boy-who-lived at the school. Harry meandered over to the hat, in no particular rush. He sat and set the hat upon his head.

"Well well," Spoke the hat's voice in his ear. "No wonder Mister Longbottom knew just what I was looking for in Gryffindors. Hello again, Lord G-"

"No." Interrupted Harry. "It's Harry Potter now."

"Yes, of course. I remember how you like to keep your other identities to yourself."

"Good. So... how are you, Adrian?"

"I am quite well, Mister Potter. Could do with a good cleaning and a few repair spells, but otherwise, I am in good shape."

"Yes I noticed. It looks like you haven't been cleaned or repaired in a thousand years."

"Approximately, yes." the hat grumbled, sounding less then pleased.

"By the way, what happened to the house tables? When did they remove the small round tables, in place of the four long ones? Separating the students totally by house can't be good for school unity."

"About four hundred years ago. The headmaster at the time was a Slytherin graduate, and felt his house was above the other houses. He didn't want the Slytherin students mingling with who he felt was 'beneath them'."

"And no one ever thought to put them back the way they were. Great. That's got to be causing problems. Anyway. We might as well get on with the sorting. People are starting to stare at us. Well, more then they already were."

"Of course, Mister Potter. The same as before?"

"I think so. I made some friends there, that I'd like to help succeed. By the way, I see other red-heads, who I assume are the Weasley brothers, in Gryffindor. I know you tend to put people where they want, but please think long and hard before just placing Ron Weasley with his brothers. I've quickly come to realize that Godric would have wanted nothing to do with a person like that."

"Of course, Mister Potter. As for you..."

Then the hat shouted out to the entirety of the hall, "Gryffindor."

Amidst the cheering and applause, Harry set the hat down on the stool, and took a seat next to his two friends.

"Good job, Neville. Welcome to Gryffindor." Harry said, grinning. "I knew you had it in you."

While the sorting continued, Harry cautiously watched the head table where the teachers sat, trying to figure out what to expect from them in the coming classes. Only one teacher was obvious in his attitude. Sitting next to a man with a ridiculous turban was a man with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. He was staring straight at Harry with a look of pure loathing marring his face.

Harry leaned over to an older student to his right. "Pardon me, but who's the teacher with the hook nose?"

The older girl looked at Harry with a slight blush, then looked to where Harry was watching the head table. "Oh, him. That's professor Snape. He's the potions teacher, though everyone knows he wants to teach defense against the dark arts."

"Ah. And what's your name?" Harry asked.

"Angelina Johnson. I'm one of the Gryffindor Chasers on the quidditch team."

"Well, thank you, Angelina Johnson." Harry said, throwing his best 'come hither' smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you."

The Brunet girl turned back to her dinner trying to hide her blush.

"Oi, Fred, a first year's about to steal away your girl." Announced a red-haired boy next to Angelina, talking to his twin sitting across the table from them. They were the same two boys who had sung the 'we got harry' song, when he joined their house.

"What?" Angelina said, blushing even harder. "I'm not 'his girl', George Weasley." She smacked him on the back of the head causing his twin to nearly fall out of the chair laughing.

Finally Ron Weasley sat upon the stool, which drew Harry's attention back to the sorting. At first he looked quite happy as the hat was set upon his head, but his face quickly went very pale, then a deep red while he obviously argued with it. Finally the rip opened upon the brim, and the hat spoke. "Slytherin!"

The three red-headed boys at the Gryffindor table looked quite shocked, but then the twins started snickering and whispering between themselves. At the front of the hall Ron leapt up and threw the hat down upon the stool.

"No you stupid hat, I'm supposed to be in Gryffindor!"

"Mister Weasley," Professor McGonagall said to him. "You have been sorted. Please take a seat at your house table."

"But that's not supposed to be my house." Ron argued. At this point, Professor Snape looked like he was about to burst, he was so angry he was practically vibrating in his seat.

"Mister Weasley," Spoke the Headmaster, his beard nearly twitching as he stood. "The sorting hat is never wrong. You are in Slytherin, now please have a seat." Ron finally walked to the Slytherin table, dragging his feet the whole way, as he muttered to himself about how evil everyone in Slytherin is. Some of the older students there obviously heard him, as they looked less then pleased.

One last student was sorted, also into Slytherin, then the Headmaster stood again, this time to welcome everyone with a few random words. The old man then sat, and the table instantly filled with food. Harry started organizing his plate, waiting for the telltale sound of his dinner mate. Moments later, Hedwig swooped down from the ceiling beam where she had perched to watch the sorting, and landed on Harry's shoulder, nipping on his ear in a sign of affection.

"Hello, beautiful." He whispered to her. She hooted softly in response before eating the chunk of chicken he offered. Harry listened as the first years around him talked about their families, and where they come from, until finally desert appeared, durring which Hedwig smacked Harry with her wing when he reached for the second treacle tart. Despite the fact that their metamorphic shape-shifter gift made it so they never had to worry about becoming overweight, a heart attack, or any diseases, she still got on him about eating healthier.

Headmaster Dumbledore stood once again, and the hall fell silent. He started listing a few start of term notices, of which Harry mostly listened to offhandedly, until his attention was drawn by the mention of an 'out of bounds' corridor, and a threat of dieing a very painful death.

"Wonder what that's about." He whispered to Hedwig. "Man is so old he probably really believes that telling a building full of children not to do something will actually stop them."

After a terrible rendition of what the headmaster claimed was the school song, Dumbledore released everyone to head to the dorms. After letting Hedwig fly out of the owl mail window, Harry headed for the exit to the great hall, where he was waylaid by Professor McGonagall, who asked him to follow her to the headmasters office.

They walked to a gargoyle guarding what once was, ironically enough, Salazar Slytherin's office. "Chocolate Frogs." McGonagall said as the password, causing the statue to jump aside, leaving the way open for the Professor to lead Harry up a rotating staircase.

Looking around the office, at the moving paintings, the clicking, popping and smoking instruments on every surface and the golden perch, it looked nothing like the room where Harry had witnessed and been apart of many very vocal disagreements.

"Ah, Harry. Welcome to my office. Please have a seat." The headmaster sat in a chair behind a large desk littered with papers. Professor Snape slithered through a shadow in the corner of the room, opposite the desk. Dumbledore held up a small crystal bowl of yellow candies. "Lemon drop?"

"Um... no. No thank you, sir." he responded. Professor McGonagall stood next to the desk, looking rather unhappily at Harry. "Let me guess. This is about what happened on the train."

"According to Mister Malfoy, you attacked him unprovoked when he came to meet you."

Harry couldn't help but laugh. "I guess, if you count insulting my friends and my parents, and threatening my life as 'unprovoked'. All I did was grab him and shove him out of our compartment. Which he came in uninvited, I might add."

Snape couldn't hold himself back any longer. "Potter, you are just like you father! He was-"

Harry reacted before even thinking. He leapt up from the chair and was snarling at Snape in a heartbeat. "My father was a great man! He was a hero, he fought off Voldemort repeatedly, and I'm lucky if I can be half the man he was. You have no right to talk about him."

As he was speaking, he looked Snape right in the eyes, and the professor couldn't resist. He used legilimency to look into Harry's mind. Although their bodies were still in the headmasters office, aware of their surroundings, their conscious minds were now standing in a grassy field representing Harry's mental construct. Not too far away, there was a brick-shaped white building with a door on one of the narrow ends, which housed his active subconscious. Snape looked around at the floating cubes representing Harry's memories, and grinned to himself, thinking that he now had total access to the brats mind.

Unbeknownst to the potions master, an aspect of Harry's conscious mind was watching the man walk through his mind-field. Harry had long ago become a master Occlumens, able to resist mental attacks and Legilimency. Inspired by the way he could change his body at will, Harry had long ago buried his true thoughts, memories, and even his subconscious mind building in a series of tunnels under the grassy field representing his mind, and created multiple sets of fake minds and memories, each unique to the different faces he used in life. He was current 'wearing' his 11 year old Harry Potter mind-scape, filled with memories of his aunt and uncle, and no mention of time travel what so ever.

Harry willed himself to float along invisible behind the angry potion master, lightly holding on to the tether that connected the representation of the man in Harry's mind to his own body. Doing so aloud him to hear every thought rushing through the man's mind. He could see flashes of Snape being taunted by a young James Potter, and attacking James and his friends in return. There were many images of Lily Potter, the real memories clear, and the crude fantasies vague and smokey enough to make it clear to Harry that Snape had never been physical with Lily in any way. He was quite glad, as that was not an image he wanted in his head, no matter how old he really was.

He watched as Snape headed for a cluster of memory blocks, each cracked and slightly red tinted, indicating these memories were particularly painful. They were of course fake, but Snape didn't know that. With his hold on the man's mind tether, he could hear his intention to use the memories to torture the eleven year old with. That made Harry rather upset. The memories were fake and wouldn't bother him in the slightest, but the idea that a grown man intended to mentally torture a child set him on the offensive. He grabbed hold of the man's tether with both hands (or at least the mental representation of Harry's willpower within his own head), thought back to the feeling caused by the Cruciatus Curse, and willed the mental suggestion of pain into the tether, planting it in Snape's subconscious. This technique was extra effective if the recipient of the implanted suggestion already had memories of what was being implanted, in this case the pain of the Cruciatus, which Snape happened to have plenty of.

Back in the headmasters officer, Snape was still ranting about James Potter. An Occlumens mind works much quicker then an average untrained mind, so the entirety of the man's invasion, from first entry, to the pain filled response took only seconds.

"Your father was a-" Snape suddenly grabbed his head his arms shaking, followed by a pain filled grunt. The man's eyes rolled back in his head, and he dropped to the floor like a puppet which had it's strings cut.

The Headmaster and Professor McGonagall looked shocked before quickly moving to the unconscious form of Severus Snape.

"Um... Is he okay?" Harry asked, playing the nervous eleven year old everyone thought he was.

"Yes, Harry, I believe Professor Snape will be fine. I'll just bring in Madam Pomfrey, the schools nurse. Minerva, if you would be so kind, please escort Mister Potter to Gryffindor Tower."

"Of course, Albus." She headed for the office door. "Right this way, Mister Potter."

Harry followed her as she took a very indirect route to the tower. On some level, Harry wondered if she were trying to get him lost. She took him as far as the painting of a woman which McGonagall called the fat lady, gave him the password, 'Caput Draconis', and left him to find his way from there.

Inside, the common room was still fairly full, students mingling, and being social. Among them, Hermione and Neville were sitting on one of the comfortable looking couches, waiting. They immediately approached him as he entered.

"You didn't get in trouble, did you?" Hermione asked.

"No. Snape had a stroke, or something, and they let me go."

"Oh, well... that's good. I guess?" Hermione seemed unsure whether she should be worried at a teacher nearly dying, or glad that Harry wasn't suspended. "Is he alright?"

"I don't rightly care. He spent the meeting insulting my father. I think whatever happens to him, he was asking for. Anyway, I'm tired. Classes tomorrow, and all. Neville, can you show me the way to our dorm?"

The boy in question nodded, unsure of what to say if anything, about his friends anger at a teacher. He led Harry up the boys stairwell to the 1st year dorm. Once there, the currently young shape-shifter enlarged his trunk, then opened the window by his bed.

"What are you doing?" Asked one of the other boys in the room, who Harry remembered was named Seamus. "It's freezing out there."

He just smiled, and held up his arm where, as if having practiced, Hedwig soared in the open window and landed upon it. He then shut the window, and moved to his bed. Hedwig quickly hopped onto the headboard, where she settled in to sleep.

"Odd owl that," Seamus said. "She sleeps at night? Don't owls usually sleep during the day?"

"My girl here is special." He scratched Hedwig on her neck the way he knew she liked when an owl, causing her to let out a soft warble of pleasure. "She usually spends her days with me while I'm awake, being pampered. She doesn't hunt much, just eats meat off my plate."

Harry turned back to his trunk. The security wards protecting it were a marvelous work of magic. Even with seven externally accessible compartments there were no visible locks. Blood wards were runed into the leather-covered exterior, bound to the current owner. Five of the seven compartments could only be opened by someone keyed into the wards, by that person using a combination of a trickle of magic and a force of will to access a specific chamber.

Harry placed his hand on top of the trunk, willing the blood wards to unseal the second compartment. The lid opened, causing a two door wardrobe to rise up out of the extended interior space, allowing Harry to get a set of warm pajamas out, and quickly change for bed. He wasn't looking forward to sleeping alone in a strange bed, but didn't think he could slip into the flat in his trunk without making his dorm mates suspicious. After wishing the other boys a goodnight, he pulled the crimson velvet curtains around his personal space closed, casting a wandless silencing charm around them. Harry's suddenly adult form was quickly embraced by Hedwig from behind. She kissed the back of his neck softly, and whispered into his ear.

"Goodnight, my love."


	5. Year 01 Chapter 05 Day One

AN: My internet situation has gone iffy, so I don't expect to be able to update much more then once per week for now on.

Chapter 05

Harry was awoken by the vibration of the alarm spell he placed on his pillow the night before. Upon opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Hedwig's bright white feathers nearly glowing in the still dark room. He smiled up at her, loving the way her feathers quiver as she slept. As often as they shared a bed while she was human, he didn't get to see the sleeping owl form much. He of course missed her in the bed, but as long as she was close, he was happy.

Stretching while getting out of bed was an experience for a metamorphic shape-shifter, as Harry, and Hedwig by extension, could both make their joints bend in the opposite direction of which they were designed to, or even grow extra limbs at a mere thought. You've never had a good stretch, until you've done it with four arms. After a minute of popping joints, rippling muscles, and skin for that matter, Harry was feeling pretty limber.

"Come on, honey." He whispered, carefully scooping Hedwig up from the headboard, and cradling her still sleeping form in his arms. Keeping her in one arm, he placed his off hand on the lid of his trunk and willed open the third compartment.

Harry loved this trunk. Of the thirteen compartments, all of them could be reached by doors linked to at least one of the other interior rooms, yet six of the compartments had no outside access. The outside accessible rooms, beside the double sized trunk space, and wardrobe, contained a library, potions lab, small hospital wing, and a temporary prison containing five holding cells. The trunk was after all designed for military use.

He stepped into what appeared to be unmodified trunk space, and moments later the floor descended, leaving him and the still sleeping Hedwig in what looked almost like the entry hall of a large manor house. The room was about two meters wide and four meters long, with plush burgundy carpet and paintings of a rolling countryside on both walls. Across from Where Harry stood, was the entry door to the large four-bedroom flat, which, as well as being their primary home given Harry and Hedwig's extremely mobile lifestyle, also gave them somewhere to find privacy while at school. He opened the door, feeling the tingle of magic over his long trained mage sense as he entered the comfortable sitting room. The entry hall and sixth compartment, which contained the hospital, were the only spaces accessible to guests without being keyed into the numerous security wards, and even those 'public' spaces had several wards of their own, to protect against weapons, ill intent toward anyone in residence, or any form of real violence.

"Wakey wakey, honey." Harry said softly to his sleeping mate. She opened her eyes looking up at him for a moment, then hooted and shut them again. After so many years of living as a human she had started carrying human traits into her owl form, like the daytime consciousness, and her love of sleeping in.

"Now none of that. We both agreed to keep up our exercise regiment so as not to become lazy, Now come on, get up."

Hedwig responded with a hoot that Harry swore sounded whiny, then dropped out of her man's arms landing on the ground before him on human feet. Harry himself had shifted into an adult form, his usual mid-twenties body for when he was alone with his love. At this point in their lives, they had been hopping forms for so long, it was completely smooth and nearly instantaneous.

Hedwig followed Harry as he moved through the comfortable flat to one of the doors that connect the enlarged compartments, this one next to the kitchen and led to the spell and gun range. Once past the firing area, there was a round space containing four other doors, each of which had pictures on them showing different terrain. This whole section of the trunk was designed for use by the ICW emergency response wizards for training in different environments. The door Hedwig followed Harry to had the image of buildings on it and led to the cityscape terrain room. That particular trunk compartment contained both part of a muggle city and a generic wizard marketplace. Once there, they jogged along the empty street, between empty buildings.

The couple exercised their shape-shifting gifts as part of their daily routine. They started off running on two legs, then four, then they were two people in their late years with silver hair, then two eleven year old children. Changing forms on the go had saved their lives more than once, and the two had long become masters in shape-shifting and wandlessly transfiguring their clothes without even slowing down.

The next two hours were spent working up a healthy sweat, before returning to the flat to unwind soaking in the jacuzzi tub in the master bath. Eleven year old Harry with owl Hedwig in her usual place on his shoulder emerged from the trunk as the first year boys were just starting to drag themselves awake. He shrunk the trunk down to the size of a pack of playing cards, and slipped it into one of his magically expanded pockets.

"Hurry up, Nev. Breakfast is waiting."

The boy in question blinked blearily at him, grumbling. "You are way too cheery for this early in the morning."

"Just looking forward to the first day of magic school." He lied, thinking back on his and Hedwig's activities in the hot tub. "I'll meet you downstairs."

Hermione was reading in the common room when Harry reached the bottom of the stairs. He sat next to her on the couch, waiting for her to notice him. After nearly a minute he decided to help her connect to her fellow students.

"I know you want to be the best," He said gently, "but you should be more social. Put the books down a bit more, and interact."

Hermione blushed when he surprised her, and only got redder as he spoke. "I um... I just like to learn."

"I understand. There's so much information out there, so many amazing things to know. But you'd be surprised how much you can learn by talking to people."

She looked surprised by what her friend had said. "I never thought of it that way."

"Oh yeah." He insisted. "Heck, instead of reading something in a book, you should ask others around you what they know about a subject you are interested in. You can learn from them, and it's a good way to make friends, sharing interests with others."

Neville had finally come down the stairs, so with that nugget of knowledge dispensed, the three friends headed to breakfast.

Harry, not wanting the others to think that he knew the castle too well, allowed his friends to lead the way and, after getting lost a few times, finally arrived at the great hall. The tables were loaded with every breakfast food imaginable, and He enjoyed a bowl of cereal with fruit and french toast, while feeding Hedwig bits of toast and sausage.

After Professor McGonagall handed out their class schedules, the trio returned to Gryffindor tower to gather their books. Harry packed a feather-light knapsack with his texts and parchment, a set of lined muggle notebooks, and a set of both bright red dictation quills, and a few white Quills made from owl feathers that Hedwig had lengthened with her shape-shifting ability for this use.

The first class that day was Transfiguration with the Ravenclaw students, taught by Professor McGonagall herself. Harry and his friends took seats in the front row, Hedwig stationed quietly on the desk in front of him. Once comfortable, he pulling out two notebooks, and one each of the red and white quills. He opened one of the notebooks and lay the red quill atop it, then opened an ink bottle, dipped the white quill in it, and began doodling in the second notebook, waiting for the class to begin.

The teacher entered the classroom proper from the door to the attached office. Harry tapped his wand to the red dictation quill, which quivered, leapt upright, dipped itself in the ink bottle, then stood poised to begin recording whatever was said around it. Hermione looked amazed at the self-writing quill, but Harry just smiled at her, and put his finger to his lips, indicating she not ask any questions. After all, whatever she said would be recorded by the very quill she would have asked about.

McGonagall strode to the front of the class. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous ma-" She stopped mid-word when she turned to face the students. "Mister Potter, why is there an owl on your desk?"

Harry frowned for a moment, hating that Hedwig had to pretend to be just an owl, when she was so much more. Ever since their exposure to the corrupted binding ritual that forged a familiar bond between them, causing her to gain his shape-changing ability, she had grown and learned, and become so much more than an owl. She was probably smarter then Harry was. She was truly human.

"Where else would she sit to learn magic?" He answered, as if it was obvious.

McGonagall was entirely speechless for nearly half a minute. "Mister Potter, she's an owl. Animals can't perform magic."

"I have to disagree with you, Professor." Harry was looking forward to the expression on the teachers face after this. "My Hedwig is very smart. When I was trying out some of the spells in the books over the summer, she managed to change a match stick into a needle before I did."

The teacher was again struck speechless.

"Perhaps if she showed you, you could let her stay in class to learn magic with us." Harry offered.

"Very well, Mister Potter." She retrieved a match stick from her desk and set it before the owl, watching expectantly. "Let's see if she can do it again."

Hedwig rotated her head to the side, staring so fiercely at the matchstick that any bit of wood would be shimmying away in fear. Harry allowed a moment for dramatic effect, but knew that, although she could cast magic in her human form, she had never actually succeeded as an owl. Hence why, with a twitch of his finger, he wandlessly transfigured the match into a needle. The fact that it appeared as if Hedwig had done the spell-work herself had the teacher struck dumb.

"Well it... it seemed you weren't joking, Mister Potter. As long as she doesn't disturb the class, she can stay."

McGonagall turned away from the classroom, taking a moment to collect herself, and recall what she was saying before she witnessed a post owl perform magic.

"Ah yes." She turned back to the students and one owl, who were watching her expectantly. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. Transfiguration can be extremely dangerous if not careful. You have been warned."

Harry's dictation quill scribbled away taking down every word, while the wizard himself attempted to stay focused on a class that was so far below him as to be laughable, by jotting his own ideas and thoughts on what the teacher was saying in his second notebook. Unfortunately, most of his 'notes' ended up looking a lot like naughty drawings of Hedwig's human form.

McGonagall proved to be quite knowledgeable on her subject, explaining that, to transfigure an item, in this case a match stick to a needle, you first need to be able to clearly picture both items in your mind then see the steps required. You have to understand both items, the feeling of their composite material and their weight. Picture the wood thinning and turning silver. After that clearly imagine how the now silver match sharpens, then finally see the match head gaining a hole. It would be a slow process at first, but with training and experience, the students would be able to transfigure with ease.

When the time finally came to actually cast, the young wizard was quite amused watching the first years struggle to complete such a simple transfiguration. Of course, that was to be expected. That specific branch of magic required a lot of focus and detailed mental imagery, something not easy for eleven year old children. The farthest along at the end of class was Hermione, who had a mental maturity years above her class mates. The most entertaining moment of the class was when Seamus Finnigan shoved too much power into the spell, causing his match to burst into flames, taking his eyebrows with it.

The next class they went to was Herbology with the hard-working Hufflepuffs, taught by Professor Sprout. She was a frumpy looking witch who spent all her time outside of the castle, both working and teaching in the greenhouses. Harry would have been surprised if she didn't look somewhat frumpy, what with the many layers she probably wore to protect against the biting Scottish cold. Despite her looks, she was an even tempered and extremely fair woman, who always gave off the feel of someone who would stand up to anything in protection of those in her care, which Harry quite respected.

Hedwig took her place atop a short sturdy flutterbloom tree behind the workspace her wizard claimed as his own. The Flutterbloom was a non-dangerous plant that would be simple for first years to study, the sap of which is a stabilizing agent in many healing potions.

Harry was not looking forward to this class. Despite all his experience working with plants, magical or otherwise, it still wasn't his favourite subject. One and a half gruelling hours later, after gathering three bottles of sap, Harry left for his dormitory, where he slipped into his trunk flat to grab a quick shower before lunch. He was surprised, though not displeased when Hedwig joined him under the steaming water.

The only class scheduled after lunch was Charms with the Ravenclaws, taught by Professor Flitwick, who was a very short man with a great sense of humor. The closest Harry could figure his heritage was part-gnome, or possibly goblin. The man had to stand on a stack of books to see over his desk. When he came to Harry's name he stopped for a moment.

"And that must be your amazing owl." He said. "Yes, Professor McGonagall told me about your owl casting magic. Do you think she will have a gift for charms, Mister Potter?"

"I hope so, Professor." Harry replied with a grin. "There's only one way to find out."

"Yes yes, so there is." With that he completed the roll and began explaining the theory behind the different wand movements, how there were really only a small number of individual movements which were used in a different order depending on what the wizard was attempting to cast. As each of the sequences were based on Norse runes, the caster was basically inscribing a simplified runic sequence in the air. He explained that part purely for educational purposes, saying that any more detailed information would require that the students take the Ancient Runes class not offered until third year.

After a long note taking session Flitwick led the class in attempting the color changing charm. A simple spell that taught wand movements that would be part of more complicated charms in future classes and later years.

The class let out at a quarter after three, leaving the first years with a free period until five in the evening, when dinner was served. Before everyone left the room Harry invited the whole of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years to join him in the great hall for a homework and study session. The Ravenclaws of course accepted right away, studious lot they were. The Gryffindors all begged off immediately, except for Harry's two friends, and one girl with light brown hair and round glasses, who looked like she wanted to speak up, but was too shy.

"Hi, um... What's your name?" He asked.

She looked rather startled at being singled out. "I'm um... I'm Sophie."

"Well Sophie, would you like to work with us on our assignments?"

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, and just nodded.

"Aright then, we're heading to the great hall. Why don't you come with us." He offered her his hand, which she looked at for a moment then slowly took, allowing Harry to help her stand up out of her chair. The whole group walked to the great hall where, to everyone's surprise, Harry immediately headed to the Ravenclaw table. When he noticed everyone looking at him he explained.

"Most everyone here is from Ravenclaw. I just figured it made the most sense."

The student group spent the next hour and a half working on the three assignments given on their first day, figuring it better to get them out of the way. Harry spent most of the time subtly trying to get Sophie to speak to her peers more. That, and avoiding the odd looks Hermione would give him, whenever he would suggest a bit of information for their assignments that wasn't from their class texts.

When dinner was served the other Gryffindors got up to move, but Harry stopped them.

"Why move? We're here, there's food, good people and no rules saying that we can only sit at our house table. Although if you have other friends you want to sit with, I will understand."

Sophie looked to the Gryffindor table and back repeatedly while the others settled back in, before finally sitting back at the Ravenclaw table. Professor Flitwick, who was passing by when Harry said this stopped by them and spoke.

"Five points to Gryffindor, Mister Potter for inspiring school unity."

"Thank you, sir." Harry responded.

Once dinner and their work was done, everyone returned to their common rooms, where Harry joined Neville in a game of exploding snap, while Hermione sat to watch with a book in hand, and Sophie retreated to her dorm room. A few other first year boys joined to watch Harry get covered in soot, an owl hooting as she laughed at him.

After the game, Harry looked at his watch. With curfew less then ten minutes away, he decided to slip out of the common room while no one was the wiser. He signalled Hedwig to hop onto his shoulder, then slipped into the stairwell leading to the boys dorms, quickly disillusioning them both as soon as they were out of sight. He silenced his footfalls and moved back through the common room. Once past the painting guarding the door, He hurried to a dusty, seldom travelled second floor hallway. He pressed his hand to a discoloured stone in the wall and whispered the pass phrase.

"Only way out."

The stones in the wall receded and moved aside, starting with the one under Harry's hand. Suddenly there was an archway leading to a stairwell, where moments before there was a blank wall. The wizard moved onto the stairs and waved his hand, causing the wall to rebuild, hiding the secret passage once again. He had only descended a few steps when he began to feel the tingle of foreign magic. Hedwig hooted inquiringly, wondering why he had stopped.

"I don't know... hang on a second." He held his hand out before him, mentally shaping his magic into a diagnostic charm. "Oh. It's a proximity ward. Someone knows about this passageway and is watching to see if anyone comes through here. There's nothing malicious here. Probably just Albus watching for students sneaking out."

"Can you disable it?" She asked from behind him.

"Should be easy enough. Nice guy, that Albus, but not the most imaginative. He's alerted if the ward is tripped, but not if it's disabled." Harry rolled his eyes. "Man just can't believe anyone can out-smart him."

With a final wave of his hand, the ward collapsed, and the couple moved down the stairs to a hallway that led out of the castle.

"Please fix the school's wards soon." Hedwig sighed as she followed her man down the long dusty hall. "Being keyed into the original scheme doesn't help if every two-bit headmaster tacks on extra anti-apparition wards."

"I'll get started on them this weekend. Don't really have time with classes right now. At least, not without being seen." The feel of magic across Harry's skin alerted him to the fact they were outside of the schools protections. "We're out. Let's go."

Together they apparated away from the school, reappearing in a small house in the south of France. "I miss this house." Hedwig commented, as she riffled through the pile of mail waiting for them. She sighed at the letter in her hand. "How many times do you have to tell them you don't teach Alchemy any more, before they give up?"

"I don't know. Though if things go with Albus the way I suspect they will, we may not be around much longer to be asked."

She skimmed over the last of the mail before talking again. "Speak of the devil, there's also an update on his study of the stone."

"Has it shattered yet?"

"No, according to this, everything is going well, and he's learning a lot. How long do you think before it happens?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "It's got to be any day now. The runes on that thing were perfect."

"He's going to be so surprised when it goes 'boom'. Hopefully it burns off that ludicrous beard of his."


	6. Year 01 Chapter 06 Potions War

Chapter 06

After their usual early morning workout, Harry took the time to respond to Albus's letter from the night before. A basic Fluff piece congratulating him on his progress, the whole time picturing him with eyebrows burned off, not unlike Seamus the day before. Hedwig was soon riding her wizards shoulder down the stairs to meet Hermione, again reading on the couch while waiting for him and Neville. This time, he was surprised to see her roommate waiting as well.

"Good morning Hermione, morning Sophie. You know, it occurs to me that I didn't get your last name, yesterday. If your going to hang out with us, which I think is great by the way, it just seems appropriate that I know your name."

She blushed heavily, before answering softly. "Roper. I'm Sophie Roper."

"Well then, well met Sophie Roper."

Neville soon joined them, and they headed to breakfast, sitting at the Gryffindor table once more. Once Hedwig was fed, Harry handed her the letter he had written earlier and watched her fly out of the post window near the ceiling.

"Who are you writing to, Harry?" Hermione asked, unable to keep her curiosity to herself.

"Just mail ordering a book." He lied. Thinking of a quick distraction, he turned to her. "You're parents are non-magical, right? If you want, Hedwig would be happy to take a letter to them when she gets back. I bet they'd love to know how your first day went."

"Oh yeah, that's a great idea. Will she take long to return?"

"No. She's very fast. She'll probably be able to get to your parents and back before classes start. We have that free class on Tuesdays, after all."

"In that case, I better get writing."

Harry watched as Hedwig flew back in through the mail window, this time as a large brown great horned owl, his letter to Dumbledore in her beak. She dropped the letter in front of him then flew back out, and Harry could feel her fly up to Gryffindor tower, to await him. The four first-years headed back to the common room to pass the time until their first class of the day, Herbology, at quarter of eleven. Hermione turned to Harry when she saw Hedwig waiting for him.

"How long will it take her to get to my partents? They leave for work soon."

"It shouldn't take any time at all." he answered, so she offered the freshly written letter to Harry.

"Don't give it to me. Ask her if she will take it to them and get it there fast."

Once asked, the owl looked at Hermione, as if making a decision, then hooted kindly, and hopped forward. She took the letter in her beak, and was out the window in moments. Through their familiar bond, he followed her progress as she flew outside of the Hogwarts ward line, shifted to her human form, then using the post owls inherent ability to locate people, apparated directly to the Granger's residence, before returning to her owl form to deliver the letter.

Twenty minutes later, Hedwig returned, a letter to Hermione in her beak. She dropped it in the girls lap, then got comfortable on Harry's shoulder. The girl sitting across from him was quite happy as she read her parents letter. "Thank you Hedwig. You are the best."

She hooted in return, before nipping Harry's ear.

The only class the Gryffindor first years had before lunch was Herbology. At the end of the class, Harry invited the Hufflepuffs to join him, his friends and the Ravenclaws to continue the study and homework group from the night before.

It wasn't until after lunch that they experienced anything new. The first class was Defense against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins, taught by the turban wearing Professor Quirrell. Though a very important subject, the class itself was a joke. The room stank heavily of garlic, which some believed that the teacher kept on him to protect himself from an angry vampire. Harry of course laughed at this, as he knew garlic did not have any effect on vampires whatsoever. Quirrell himself stuttered so badly it took him nearly a minute to finish a single sentence, and acted as if terrified of the very ideas he was supposed to teach. He would shy away from any real lessons, and the entire class was a waste of time.

Harry was seriously starting to wonder what Dumbledore was thinking hiring someone like that to teach such an important subject.

That thought only got worse when the he got to history of magic, which they shared with the Ravenclaws, and saw it was taught by a ghost, and not just any ghost, but one that was so very boring, that even Hedwig slept through the class.

Wednesday's classes were a repeat of the same schedule as Monday, until midnight, when they were required to meet the Hufflepuff students and Professor Sinestra on top of the Astronomy tower to learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.

The final new class of the year was the one he was looking forward to the least. Double Potions with the Slytherins, taught by Professor Snape, if 'taught' is even the right word for it. More like 'Lorded Over' by Professor Snape. Harry thought that Potions class should be renamed 'childish tantrums class, with Professor Snape.'

The students gathered in the class, pairing up at tables, when the Professor, who seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, threw open the door to his office with a loud bang, making the first years jump, then stormed to the front of the room, his cloak billowing behind him as he went. Definite drama queen.

Once in the front Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new celebrity."

The person in question had to roll his eyes. The childish professor couldn't even wait to finish roll call, before insulting a student. Snape completed the roll, then began a long winded speech, the point of which seemed solely to again insult his students. It was quickly obvious that he believed potions the end all and be all of magic. Personally, Harry considered potions to be the mentally retarded little brother of Alchemy.

He suddenly spun, as if trying to catch his target off guard. "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"I don't know sir. I thought the point of class was to teach us that. I didn't know I was supposed to come to class already knowing."

"Five points for your snark, Potter. Let's try again. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"Oh! That one I know! They come from the stomach of a goat. I read that in 1000 magical herbs and fungi. Though it's not really a plant, I don't know why it was in there."

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"Hey, same book. I know that too!" Harry smiled, making sure to look completely uncaring about Snape's furious glare. "They are different names for the same plant, sir."

Snape's face twitched, staring Harry in the eyes, so wanting to attack his mind, but afraid of spending another day in the medical wing. The pain that he had felt from what his ego wouldn't let him believe was anything more then a freak occurrence was still enough to give him pause.

Snape's hand moved toward his wand, before he got control of himself, then his lips twitched almost allowing himself to smile as he knew what to ask next.

"What are jobberknoll feathers used for?"

"Hey, I know that one too!" He grinned widely. "that's used in a lot of memory potions."

"Like the one you took before this class, Potter? Decided to show off for your peers? Ten points from Gryffindor for cheating. And a detention."

"Yeah." Harry muttered softly to himself, his fake smile instantly dropping off his face. "Good luck enforcing that."

Snape assigned them in pairs to work together, teaming Harry with Neville, and spent the rest of the class time sweeping around the room, his cloak billowing, criticizing everyone as he went.

Everything went well for the duo, except when Neville almost destroyed the cauldron by adding the porcupine quills too early. Luckily, Harry caught him and saved the potion. At the end of class it was perfect. For anyone else, that would have been enough, but Snape wanted to punish Harry for causing him pain, despite the fact he didn't believe that the boy could ever be responsible.

"What is this?" He barked at Harry.

"Boil cure. A real good one, too." He replied.

"Not good enough." Snape sneered. He tapped his wand to the cauldron, vanishing the potion. "Zero for the class, Potter. Better try harder next time."

With that, he strode off sneering at his believed victory. Harry just rolled his eyes, disgusted at the childishness of the grown man. Once the class was released the students left the dungeons, heading for lunch.

Draco Malfoy and his goons stepped in front of him. "Hey Potter how did you-"

With a slight flick of his wrist, while still at his side, Harry wandlessly cast a sticking charm on the boy's lips, sealing his mouth shut as he walked by, without even giving him a second look.

Once all the teachers had arrived at the great hall, Harry looked at his friends. "You lot want to have some fun? Watch and learn."

He walked up to where McGonagall and Dumbledore sat at the head table, causing the Great Hall to fall silent, everyone wanting to hear what was being said. "Sir, Ma'am. There was a unfortunate situation in Professor Snape's potions class today. Per the teacher and student proper conduct guide, I request adjudication by the board of governors."

A hissing pop sound came from the house point counters. The counters were basically large jars built into the wall by the main doors of the great hall, two on each side. Each was filled with a different gemstone per house, keeping track of the overall points, Rubies for Gryffindor, Sapphires for Hufflepuff, Topaz for Ravenclaw, and Emeralds for Slytherin.

"Harry, do you know what it is you are asking?" Dumbledore inquired.

"I know exactly what I'm asking, sir." He replied. "A teacher was engaging in conduct unbecoming someone of his position, and I feel it needs to be confronted before it gets any further out of hand."

Professor McGonagall looked quite shocked, and Snape looked like he wanted to lunge at Harry. "Please let me know when the meeting is scheduled, thank you sir."

He turned to move back to his friends when Snape leapt to his feet. "Fifty points from Gryffindor, Potter, for... for that!"

"On no!" Harry faked looking shocked. "Not fifty points!" He turned to the counters, where rubies would usually be pouring out of the Gryffindor jar back into storage. Then he smiled sharply. "Oh wait... it looks like nothing is happening."

Harry sat back down, by Hermione, who couldn't control her curiosity for even a moment. "What did you do? Why aren't we loosing points?"

"The way Snape treats his students is criminal. In my parents Gringotts vault, I found a hand written notebook called 'All the Things about Hogwarts they don't want you to know'. One of the things in it is what I did up there. Adjudication by the board. Basically, if a teacher is taking points or giving detentions in a way that shows they are taking advantage of their position to treat students unfairly, I can ask for a review of the points and detentions by the Hogwarts board of governors."

Harry paused to take a sip of pumpkin juice before continuing. "Now here's the fun part. As soon as the adjudication is requested, the teacher in question can no longer give or take any points or detentions until the inquiry is closed, which requires the matter being settled to the agreement of all the parties involved, namely the Headmaster, Deputy Headmistress, the teacher and student. And do you think that Snape and I will ever agree on anything? It's going to be a long long time before he can take points again."

At this point, Hermione was nearly chewing on her fingernails, she was fretting so hard. "You're going to get in so much trouble."

"Only if I'm wrong. The system is intended to be proofed against retribution. If someone tries to punish me for enforcing the rules, I can just start another adjudication. The only way I can get in trouble, is if I open an inquiry on someone who was not acting outside of the code of conduct. Then it's my fault for accusing someone incorrectly."

"What happens if they find in your favor?" Neville asked.

"Nothing overtly bad the first time. Our house gets the points he took back and they cancel the detentions he gave me. Also he hopefully learns his lesson, because if he keeps up with his biased attitude, then I can request adjudication again, and now that all the other students know about it, so can they. The thing is, the teachers don't want to be brought to the attention of the board multiple times, that's when people start loosing their jobs. Then again, I would think Dumbledore would not want people looking too closely at Snape, or they might start asking why a marked Death Eater is around their children, and spends his time harassing the boy-who-lived."

The three other students looked shocked at this, especially Neville. "He's a death eater?"

"Oh yeah. During the last war, he was arrested, but Dumbledore stood up for him in court, claimed he was repentant."

"How do you know that, Harry?" Hermione asked, hoping to finally piece together all the little weird things she had been noticing about him. Sadly that was not to be.

"When I joined the magical world, I was told I killed a dark lord, but his followers were still out there, and hated me for what happened. One of the first things I did was to research everything I could about them."

"Makes sense I guess." She admitted.

The rest of lunch was uneventful, with the exception of Snape seething the whole time. After lunch was another terrible defence lesson, then Harry dragged his friends and owl with him to have tea with Hagrid, the huge lovable groundskeeper.

"Back, Fang!" Came his voice, as he shouted at to what sounded like a braying hound. The door to Hagrid's hut swung open showing the huge man holding back a large black boar-hound, which they quickly learned was quite friendly. Harry introduced his friends to the large man, who looked sad at hearing Neville's name

"Longbottom, eh? I knew yer' parents. Good folk, they were. Shame what happened to 'em."

Neville looked at his friends, his face almost ashamed, and they realized the boy didn't want them to know what happened to his parents. Harry already knew, having read The Prophet newspaper from the day of the attack. Thinking of the prophet, He noticed there was an issue sitting on Hagrid's table.

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.

Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

"Weird." He thought out loud. "The day Gringotts was robbed. It was my birthday."

He noticed Hagrid looking especially guilty, not making eye contact with him.

"Do you know something about this, Hagrid?"

"No. I don't know nothin'. Now you should stop worrin' abou' that."

Hagrid poured tea for the four students, while Harry watched him carefully. He knew there was something in his memories of that day that was important, but felt like it was just out of reach. He remembered that Hagrid brought him to Diagon alley on that birthday, but it was so long ago, he couldn't remember much of the details. His occlumency training of his mind gave him perfect recall, but events that took place long before his mind was fully trained were less clear.

After racking his brain for a few minutes, he gave it up as a lost cause. He decided to just enjoy the rest of his visit with Hagrid, and worry about the details later.

After leaving the hut, he separated from his friends, citing wanting to explore the castle, and headed back to the secret passage he and Hedwig had cleared after his first day of school.

One quick apparition and the couple were back at the French villa. Harry grabbed a bottle of butterbeer from the cold cabinet, while Hedwig riffled through the waiting mail.

"Another update from Albus." She skimmed it quickly. "Sounds an awful lot like the last one. Everything's going great, learning a lot. I thought you said the rune-work was perfect."

"It was." Harry said. "There's gotta be something more going on there. If he were actually studying it, it would have self destructed by now."

Hedwig ran her hand through her long black hair, before sighing. "So you think he's lying to us?"

"That's my best guess. I mean, there's no way the rune-work failed."

"I hope so. We put way to much work into this to let someone catch on."

Harry sighed. "Come, my love, let's get back. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, trying to get the alphabet soup they call wards straightened out."

Once back at Hogwarts, Harry with his shoulder mounted owl, retreated quietly up to the dorm room, while everyone else was still downstairs, or already asleep. They hurriedly descended into the trunk flat, where they slept, sharing a bed for the first time in nearly a week.

"Alphabet soup was an understatement." Harry growled. He had spent the morning on the far side of the black lake, near the edge of the forbidden forest, splitting his attention between the ward diagnostic and making sure no one saw what he was doing. It was slow detailed work that required lots of focus. "These are a total mess. On the verge of failing. A number of the added on wards are pulling power from the original ones, weakening them in the process. That technique is usually how you link a ward to a powering rune sequence. Whoever did this obviously didn't know enough about runes to write one out, so they made the new wards gain power by drawing it from the old ones."

"That sounds bad."

"It is bad. This whole thing is in the process of going critical. There's so much power being pulled out of the base wards that all it will take is a few good spells on the defensive shields, and the entire thing will collapse."

"Yeah, that is bad."

Harry continued his diagnostic. "The violent action ward, the one intended to prevent students attacking each other is entirely disabled. The animagus barrier is disabled. Let's see... The polyjuice detection ward is on the brink of collapsing, it'll last two years, three at most. The dark item detection field is worse off. It won't last out the year. Huh... I don't recognize this ward."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. The Arithmancy is ridiculous, it's going to take some time to work out the math." He continued scanning a moment longer, then sat back. "I can't fix this."

"What do you mean you can't fix this. We can't let the wards fail."

"We might have to." He sighed feeling rather overwhelmed. "I'll have to completely rip down all the wards and start from scratch. To do that, I need access to the ward stones, and the only way to get to those now, are through the headmasters office. Even if I could get to them, I think he would notice when the school's protections collapse."

"This is bad." Hedwig said.

Harry added. "This is very bad."


	7. Year 07 Chapter 07 Teaching A Lesson

AN: This story now has over 100 followers, so I'm gifting you all a double posting, two chapters.

There's a line in this from Doctor Who. Hopefully it's not too cheesy. Enjoy-

Chapter 07

Harry was so proud of Neville. When they first met, he was a scared child that wouldn't stand up for himself to anyone. But now, he proved he'd come a long way. Maybe he just needed someone to back him up. Thursday morning, He received a rememberall from his grandmother which immediately lit up red. Draco Malfoy, who was passing by at the time attempted to snatch it out of his hand but Neville yanked it away from the blond-haired boy, and told him to step off.

Harry was thrilled that he was helping his friends to come into their own. This became even more so, when they headed into the field next to the castle for their first flying lesson. Hermione, Sophie and Neville were all scared of flying, afraid of falling and getting hurt. As all four houses gathered together, Harry tried to calm his friends, explaining how easy magical healing was, and how flying must be so fun. Sadly, nothing he could say seemed to do much to ease their worries.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Harry positioned himself between his two friends so he could help them along.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!' "

Harry looked at his broom, and said 'up' firmly, willing it into his hand. He noticed all three of his friends attempting to do the same, but with less results. Hermione's broomstick rolled over, while Sophie's and Neville's didn't move at all.

"You need to mean it." Harry told them. "It's like working with an animal, a pet. Do you ask it to come, or order it to come?"

This time all three spoke with firmer voices. "Up!"

All three brooms leapt into their soon to be rider's hands. Hermione looked quite happy to have succeeded. Sophie looked pleased with herself. Neville just looked nervous.

Madam Hooch spent some time walking around, showing people how to mount the broom properly and adjusting incorrect hand holds. Malfoy looked particularly upset when he had his grip corrected, after having spent all day bragging what a great flier he was. Finally the instructor began explaining how to get air born, but she didn't get very far, before Neville was off the ground, unable to control his broom. He was nearly twenty feet up when he lost his grip and fell straight to the ground, before Harry could even think to cast anything.

Madam Hooch was on him in a moment, but luckily, he only had a broken wrist. She escorted him away, leaving a warning for the remaining students. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' "

Harry was trying to console Hermione and Sophie that their friend would be fine, when he noticed Malfoy near them. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.

Malfoy smiled nastily. "I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find. How about up a tree?"

"That's a really bad idea." Harry said, his voice getting colder in threat. "You really should give that to me now."

Malfoy leapt onto his broom and took off, flying up nearly thirty feet, then shouted down. "What kind of a man are you, Potter? Come and get it."

"Just know that I gave you a chance." Harry answered. "What happens now is on you."

Harry noticed the way the boy was sitting upright on his broom, too busy taunting to hold on properly. "So be it."

He pulled out his wand, aimed it at Draco, and simply incanted two words. "Accio Broom."

The flying stick holding the blond-haired boy shot out from under him, heading straight for Harry, who simply stepped aside, letting it fly past. The boy in the air, on the other hand, with his support suddenly gone plummeted thirty feet to ground, where he landed in a broken pile, both legs and one arm bending in places he didn't have joints. His one good arm was wrapped tightly around his chest, as he moaned in pain.

Harry kneeled down next to Malfoy to scoop up the rememberall lying in the grass. "No second chances. I'm that sort of a man."

AN: I feel like this chapter shows a somewhat darker, more violent and unforgiving side of Harry. Gives you an idea of what he is capable of if pushed.


	8. Year 01 Chapter 08 Clean Sweep

AN: This is the second chapter of todays double post. This story has over 100 Followers. Let's see more reviews!

Chapter 08

"How's your wrist, Nev?" Harry asked at dinner that night.

"Is great," he answered. "Not even sore. She had me healed up in minutes. Malfoy, though, wasn't so lucky. I overheard Madam Pomfrey while I was still in there. He'll be in the hospital for five days having nearly a dozen bones regrown." That made Harry wince. Bone regrowth was a nasty ordeal.

"Even better was when Madam Hooch came in with Professor McGonagall. She gave him three months detention."

"You shouldn't have done that, Harry." Hermione complained. "You could have killed him."

"Not really." Harry replied. "It wasn't nearly high enough to actually kill him. Just teach him a lesson not to cross me or mine. That includes you."

Hermione was shocked at the callousness Harry showed about Malfoy's injuries, yet she was secretly thrilled at the idea of finally having a friend that would do anything for her. She loved finally having friends and swore to herself not to do anything to drive them away. She turned to Neville instead. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Thanks Hermione."

Hedwig hooted, and Harry translated. "Hedwig says that she's glad too, but thinks you should have..." He looked at the owl. "Really?"

She hooted at him again. "Okay... She says you should have grabbed a pillow in the hospital wing and smothered the pompous ass in his sleep. Her words, not mine."

The others laughed at that, mostly the fact they believed Harry was kidding saying it was the owl's idea.

"So how did you get out of being in trouble?" Neville asked.

"Malfoy was flying, which was against the rules. I wasn't. I just acted all apologetic and told them how I didn't know the summoning charm would pull the broom away that fast, and expected him to float on the broom to the ground."

"So... you lied." Hermione asked, grinning.

Harry just smiled mysteriously. "Anyway, I was thinking-"

"That's a scary thought." Hermione interrupted.

He glared at her before continuing. "Quidditch try outs are this weekend. I'm trying out. Anyone joining me?"

"Ha, no." Neville answered. "I think breaking my wrist was enough, I'm staying away from flying for now on."

"Aw, Nev, it isn't so bad. Flying is great, you just need some practice and a bit more self esteem. Then it's totally safe."

"Yes," Hermione commented." And seeing someone break nearly a dozen bones in our first lesson is going to help remind us how 'safe' flying is."

"Yes, well," Harry said. "Consider it 'when summoning charms attack.' "

After an especially grueling potions lesson that Friday, the weekend arrived, and saw Harry heading to the Quidditch pitch for try outs. He made a pit stop at the school broom lockers, finding the least defunct one available, before heading to the field.

"Okay, everyone," The tall somewhat gangly boy called out. "please group up by what position you are trying out for."

Harry watched the students split into two groups, and not knowing where he was supposed to go, he decided to speak up. "Yeah, hi, um... sorry, what's your name?"

"I'm Oliver Wood, keeper and Captain." He looked rather confused. "What are you doing here? First years can't be on the Quidditch teams."

"Actually, that's not true." Harry corrected. "The rules only say firsties can't own their own brooms. See?" He held up the school broom.

"I can accept that, but you really think you can play on a school broom? Those things are terrible."

"That's only because they haven't had me riding them yet." Harry had on a devil-may-care smile. "You just wait and see what I can make this baby do."

"Fair enough. What position are you trying out for?"

"Seeker."

"Really?" Oliver seemed to perk up. "I hope you're as good as you act, we haven't had a decent seeker in years."

"Like I said, just you wait and see."

Harry kicked back watching the Beaters and Chasers be put through their paces, before being called onto the pitch himself. Most of the people who had played the year before were continuing on, the Weasley twins as beaters, and Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet as Chasers, being joined by second year Katie Bell.

"Alright, Harry. Let's see what you can do with a school broom." Wood instructed. "Give her a loop around the pitch."

Harry moved a few steps away, and dropped a sticking charm on the broom as he mounted it, sticking it to his legs. Then he took off into the air, not using the broom at all but instead activating the broom runes on his body. He sped around the pitch, trying to keep the speed comparable to what the old comet 280 could do. Unfortunately he loved flying too much to slow himself down enough. After the first lap, he started performing wild tricks, dipping and diving, barrel rolls and loop-d-loops. After diving to the turf, pulling up just feet before crashing, he headed back to the team, where Oliver Wood was nearly foaming at the mouth.

"Harry, that was amazing!" his arms waving in his excitement. "If you can do that on a school broom, I can't wait to see you on one of the newer nimbus models."

"I think he like's him, George." One red-headed twin said.

"I agree, Fred." said the other.

"Haven't seen him this happy since-"

"Since we joined the team."

The twins each threw an arm over Harry's shoulders. "Welcome aboard!"

The days turned into weeks as Harry was kept busy with classes, quidditch training and trying to find some way to repair the castles failing protections.

Hedwig was sleeping peacefully on Harry's headboard one morning when she was awoken by her love's shout. "I got it!"

"Got what?" She asked, stretching. Luckily the bed curtains were sealed shut with a strong sticking charm, and silenced, so she could talk to him as a human.

Harry held up the parchment he had been writing on. "That ward I didn't recognize. The math on this is rather comprehensive. Who ever invented it was a mad genius, but if I'm reading this correctly, it's a ward designed to effect the flow of electricity. I think... that it's an anti-electronic ward. Basically it's designed to prevent technology working in the castle."

"Why would there be a ward specifically for that?"

"I have no idea. I recall that in the nineteen-thirties there was talk about putting electric lighting in the building, until they realized it wouldn't work. But with this ward up, of course it wouldn't work. Nothing electrical would."

"What about the rest of the wards. Any thoughts?" Hedwig asked.

"Sadly, no. I'm not closer to working it out. In the end we'll still need access to the stones."

She sighed. "Put it our your mind for now. Let's get to breakfast."

They joined their friends downstairs, having taken a day off from their exercise routine. After meeting with Hermione, then waiting for Neville to join them, the three friends went down to the great hall, and sat by Sophie, who greeted them kindly. While she was still pretty shy, she was like a flower that was slowly opening. Having the other three as friends seemed to do wonders for her.

Breakfast was about half over when the screech of post owls interrupted the meal. Hedwig had already returned from delivering Hermione's latest letter to her parents, so when Harry saw the group of owls delivering the long thin package, he quickly cleared away his plate. The package was dropped into his hands, where he set it on the table, and pulled off the letter attached to it.

Dear Mr. Potter

It pleases me greatly to hear from one of the major shareholders in this great broom company. Rest assured your investment is doing well.

Congratulations on making your house team, in first year, no less. I was a Chaser myself on the Ravenclaw house team long long ago.

As to your suggestion it was taken under advisement and discussed with the other shareholders, the majority of which agreed. All of the packages were sent at the same time, so expect them soon, if they have not already arrived.

As per our discussion you are receiving the first batch off the line, Special editions made just for the school.

Mr. Alexander M. Luther

President, Nimbus Broom Company

Just as he finished reading the letter, he heard a voice come from behind him he was starting to hate. "Receiving a broom in the middle of the Great Hall, Potter. Does your ego know no bounds?" The Potions Master had a twisted smirk on his face, thinking he had just been given a great gift. "I'll be taking that, as first years can't have their own brooms."

"You won't be taking it, as it's not my broom, sir." Harry said, smirking back.

"If it's not yours, then who's is it? You still can't have it."

"It's my houses broom, sir." He pulled the brown wrappings away from the handle, showing the words 'Nimbus 2001 Special Edition' and the Gryffindor crest engraved on the handle.

"Still think you deserve special treatment, Potter, getting yourself a broom, and flaunting the rules." He growled. At this point Professor McGonagall had come over to see what was going on.

"I'm not treating myself special, sir." Harry smiled at the timing, as twenty-seven groups of owls flew into the great hall carrying identical packages. "Everyone gets new brooms."

"What?!" Oliver asked aloud. He was sitting with the rest of the quidditch team, all holding brand new Nimbus 2001's with the house crest on them. "Are these for us?"

"They're for the house." He replied.

"Had to get Slytherin brooms as well?" Asked one of the twins.

"Where did you get 2001's" Asked the other.

"They aren't even on the market yet," Harry said. "The Potter family has stock ownership of a generous amount of the Nimbus broom company, so I wrote the president, with the idea of sponsoring the house teams. He offered to do so with the first batch of the new line. Special editions, just for Hogwarts."

"What is this, Potter?" Asked the Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint.

"I figure, this way, everyone's on the same level. It'll come down purely to skill." He answered. "Oh, and I've heard some bad things about how the Slytherin team has played in the past, so the deal is that you all only get to keep the sticks as long as you play a clean game."

Flint seemed slightly less pleased, but still accepted, and went back to the house table. Snape stormed off, leaving the great hall altogether.

"Well, Mister Potter," McGonagall said. "That was a very kind thing you have done. I think it's worth twenty five points."

"Thank you, Professor." He responded, before getting up to take the broom up to his dorm.

Classes continued to drag on, interrupted only by newer faster quidditch practices on newer faster brooms. Finally a major event arrived.

Halloween.

Harry and Hedwig decided to continue as they have every year. After their last class, the couple excused themselves to the dorm to change for their trip. Unlike their hops to France, this was a special occasion.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Hedwig asked.

She had already asked him that earlier that morning, but again, Harry stopped to think on it. "Yes. This is important. I may not have known my parents but I still love them. We always go see them on Halloween. I'm not about to let this charade prevent that."

Hedwig returned to her owl form, and rode her man's shoulder down to the second floor. As they approached the hidden entrance to the passageway they couldn't go any further, because there was someone sitting on the floor almost directly across from the entryway. The couple were about to sneak away, thinking someone was watching for them, when they heard the crying.

"Um, hey." Harry said, as he approached her slowly. "Are you alright?"

She looked to be a sixth or seventh year, with a heart shaped tear-stained face, and dull brown hair. She blushed at being found, not only her face turning red, but her hair color changing to match it. Harry couldn't help but smile, he hadn't seen that happen to anyone in many years.

"You're a metamorphmagus, aren't you?"

She looked at him, as if expecting him to insult her, but when she saw honest curiosity on his face, she nodded.

"Can you keep a secret?" Harry asked, acting all the eleven year old he looked. When the girl stopped crying, and nodded with a slight sniffle, Harry smiled at her. He leaned closer, and whispered to her. "No one knows I can do this."

He shut his eyes, and scrunched his face, pretending to concentrate very hard. After a moment he willed his hair to grow longer. The girl gasped.

"I... I've never met another like me." She whispered, amazed.

"My name's Harry." He said, holding out his hand.

"Um... Tonks." She shook his offered hand. "I hate my first name, so people just call me Tonks."

"I understand. I think my name is really Harold." He wrinkled his nose in fake disgust. "So... why are you crying? Are you okay? Can I help?"

"No, I'm alright. I just broke up with my boyfriend."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'd offer to be your boyfriend, but I don't think my Hedwig would appreciate that." He petted the owl. "She's way smart, and would get really mad at me. Then she'd bite my fingers a lot."

There was the start of a smile on the girl's face, so Harry knew he was doing a good job of cheering her up.

"It's okay, Hedwig," she said to the owl, "I won't try to steal your man."

"So what happened, that you broke up? Was he being a jerk? Should I go beat him up for you?"

Tonks had a full on smile now. "Thanks Harry, but that's okay. It's just hard being a metamorphmagus. I thought he was great, until he asked me to change into his ex-girlfriend."

Harry growled internally. He knew that Tonk's ex would be visited by some rather cruel pranks soon. He hated it when men took advantage of metamorphs like that. At that moment, he decided to help the girl stabilize her life.

"I would help if I could. Maybe if you didn't tell people you could change."

"It's kinda hard, Harry," she said, "What with my hair always changing color. It's kind of obvious."

"Well, duh, that's because you haven't been taught how not to." Harry rolled his eyes, exaggerating his exasperation. He leaned closer to her, as if sharing a great secret. "I know these two people. They're really nice. They saw my hair changing color one day, and taught me how to control it. I still can only do my hair length and color, but at least it's not changing every time I get upset, any longer. I am not supposed to tell anyone about them, but if I tell them about you, maybe they'll help you too." He put his finger to his lips. "Shh."

"You'd do that? You just met me."

"Yeah, but I don't like it when girls cry."

Tonks hugged Harry, and then stood. "you're a good kid, Harry. Thank you. C'mon, let's go get some food." They started to head back toward the great hall, when an overpowering smell met their nostrils, following a grunting sound.

"Ugh, what is that?" Tonks, asked, retorically.

Unfortunately for Harry, it wasn't rhetoric. Once you smell a mountain troll, you never forget it. "Um... We should really get out of here."

They moved toward the end of the hallway, but didn't get far, before they saw the troll. It was twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The creature spotted them as it came around the corner, and swung the club in front of itself, hefting it in the air ready to smash the three of them into paste.

"Run, Harry!" Tonks shouted, as she pulled out her wand and started firing spells at the monster, which sadly did very little due to it's think skin, other then make it mad. Harry knew he could destroy the troll without too much trouble, but not without blowing his cover as a mild-mannered first year. He knew he would try to hold back for now, but would have to let go, if it looked like Tonks was in trouble.

Harry rolled his right shoulder, alerting Hedwig that she needed to fly. As soon as she was off, he charged the troll, dropping to the floor and using the momentum to slide between the creature's legs. Once behind it, he leapt upon it's back and clambered up, holding on and pulling the creatures head back, quickly increasing his musculature as he did, giving himself super human strength.

"Hedwig," He called, "now!"

On that command the owl dove upon the trolls beady eyes, digging her claws in, and flapping hard, pulling as she did.

"Tonks, run!" Harry shouted as she stood amazed at the first year. "GO!"

"Not without you!" She called back, aiming her wand, but afraid to fire any spell while Harry was still clinging on.

The troll, now blinded was beginning to thrash around, trying to get the small person off it's back. It threw itself backward in an attempt to crush Harry against the wall, but the trained fighter saw what the troll was doing, and dropped to the ground, rolling forward through the creature's legs once again. He leapt to his feet next to Tonks, grabbed her hand, and pulled her away from the blinded monster. They charged down the hallway, Hedwig flying along above them. Their run ended quickly as they as they turned the corner and crashed into another student. The three people ended up on the floor in a tangle of limbs, while the enraged troll was coming closer to them, following the sounds they were making.

Harry scrambled trying to get free of the tangle of bodies, and saw who he was under. Ron Weasley was turning very red, being pressed up against a seventeen year old girl.

"Ron, what are you doing here?" Harry asked. "Never-mind, get up, we have to go, now!"

He finally managed to stand, using his still advanced muscles to drag the taller girl to her feet. He then pulled Ron up, and pushed him ahead of them. "Run!"

They three took off, The male shapeshifter reducing his muscular structure so as to not quickly out-pace the other two. Hedwig was screeching in panic, worrying about how close the troll now was.

Harry led the older girl and slytherin boy through a maze of hallways, and suddenly came out of a door near the Great Hall. He could see the teachers congregating across the entryway, near the stairs down to the dungeon. They ran quickly towards them, calling as he ran. "A little help here!"

Seeing three students charging toward you, followed by a thrashing twelve foot mountain troll was enough to make anyone freeze. Lucky for everyone it didn't last long.

"Stunners on my mark!" Shouted Professor Flitwick.

As the teachers readied their wands, the three students now behind them were trying to catch their breath. Ron was particularly bad off, his face red, and wheezing hard, sign of a pure blood wizard who relied too much on magic, and not enough on physical activity.

"Now!" Flitwick called, and all five teachers hit the troll in the head with a stunner, having enough of a collective effect to drop the it into unconsciousness.

Professor McGonagall immediately turned on the three students. "What were you doing? You could have been killed!"

"We went looking for it, Professor." Ron said.

Harry spun on him. "No we most certainly did not!" He turned back to McGonagall. "Miss Tonks and I were talking on the secong floor, when the troll attacked us. We took off, and ran head first into Ron, then came straight here. Maybe he went to look for the troll, but we did everything we could to get away from it."

McGonagall looked long and hard at Harry, before looking at Ron for almost as long. "Alright, Mister Potter, Miss Tonks please return to your common rooms, and take five points each for sheer luck in surviving a troll attack. As for you, Mister Weasley, detention for a month for the sheer stupidity of rushing into danger. What ever were you thinking?"

"Harry was going to fight the troll, I saw he wasn't at the feast, and and went to be famous too."

"You can take the fame," Harry demanded. "I just wanted to stay alive."

McGonagall looked at Harry. "Not to accuse, Mister Potter, but why were you not at the feast?"

"It's Halloween, Professor." Harry said sadly. "Forgive me for not wanting to celebrate the day my parents died."

McGonagall looked like she wanted to hug the poor boy, but didn't feel it was appropriate, so Tonks did for her. She squeezed him hard, nearly in tears again, this time at the amazing heroics of the boy who just wanted to mourn his parents in peace. "I'm going to walk him to his common room, is that alright, Professor?"

"Yes, please do, Miss Tonks. Thank you."

Hedwig nipped softly on Harry's ear, knowing that thinking of his parents still made him sad, even after all this time. She then hopped onto Tonks's shoulder and nipped her ear too, trying to thank her for looking after Harry. The girl scratched the owl's neck, as the three climbed the stairs to the tower.


	9. Year 01 Chapter 09 Seven Steps to Severu

AN: Sorry, but my internet access has taken a turn for the worst, so I may no longer be able to post more then about once a week.

Chapter 09: Seven Steps to Severus Snape

The next morning, after meeting up with Hermione, Neville and Sophie, Harry dragged his friends to sit at the Hufflepuff table. They received quite a few odd looks, sitting among the upper years, until he spoke.

"Hi Tonks!"

She smiled up at him, "Hi, Harry."

He introduced his friends to one another, and Tonks smiled and greeted them, but Harry noticed how her eyes kept flicking to a certain seventh year boy at the Ravenclaw table. Harry watched as the boy drank from his goblet for the first time.

"Hey Tonks, did you know that the kitchen is right near the Hufflepuff dorms? I also read the most interesting thing the other day. Malaclaw venom, the main ingredient in the good luck potion, if taken directly can cause server debilitating bad luck."

Suddenly, Andy Whitehall, the seventh year Ravenclaw who broke Harry's friends heart shouted out in surprise as the bench he was sat upon let out a loud 'crack' sound and collapsed, the rear legs breaking. The boy fell backward off the bench and, fork still in hand, attempted to break his fall. But as luck would have it, the boy landed on his own fork planting it deep into the meat of his left butt cheek.

Tonks watched the guy who hurt her stand and the whole hall could clearly see the fork handle sticking straight out of the boys rear end. At that moment her brain connected the fork to her young friends words. She looked to Harry who was trying hard not to laugh at the boy's misfortune.

"You did that?" She asked.

He looked at her very seriously. "He hurt you."

Tonks had never felt so important before, and it was odd, the feeling coming from someone so young. "Thank you, Harry." She kissed him on his cheek.

Harry, still playing the young boy willed his face to pink, faking a blush. "You're welcome, Tonks."

The rest of the day passed quickly, with the boring daily life of a first year, interspersed with the entertainment of watching a certain seventh year Ravenclaw hurt himself. After the fork incident, he was taken to the hospital wing, where he was given a healing potion. Unfortunately, the potion had somehow been missed in the matron's purge of expired potions. The boy in question spent the next two hours revisiting his past meals. After coming down from the tainted potion, he was healthy enough to return to classes, the first being transfiguration, where they were practicing transforming furniture. Unknown to anyone there, when the boy fell of the bench, he cracked his wand. Not enough to be obvious, but enough to cause his spells to go wrong. When he attempted to turn his desk into a large fluffy couch, he instead succeeded in turning himself into a tea kettle.

The next day was the first scheduled Quidditch match, between Gryffindor and Slytherin. After breakfast, where he ate a full and healthy meal, as nervousness at a school game was just ridiculous to someone his age, Harry took his friends on a detour on their way out of the great hall. As they were walking past the Ravenclaw table and a certain seventh year boy, who looked like he hadn't slept the night before, Harry spoke to his friends. "I heard the most interesting legend the other day. It seems, not unlike breaking a mirror, apparently making a metamorphmagus cry causes you extremely bad luck."

Harry didn't look at the boy in question, as they didn't want him to know they had anything to do with it, but he still saw him stiffen. The jerk obviously connected the dots to his recent bout of bad luck. The three first years continued talking as they headed down to the pitch, where Harry split off to enter the team locker room. The rest of the Gryffindors were already there, dressed and obviously waiting on him.

"Where were you?" Wood asked him. "You're late."

Harry raised one eyebrow, as the game was still almost half an hour from starting. "I have short legs."

After changing into his scarlet Quidditch robes, he joined the rest of the team for the pre-game meeting.

Wood cleared his throat for silence.

"Okay, men," he said.

"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.

"And women," Wood agreed. "This is it."

"The big one," said Fred Weasley.

"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.

"We know Oliver's speech by heart," Fred told Harry, "we were on the team last year."

"Shut up, you two," said Wood. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years."

"And the best brooms." Angelina pointed out.

"Yes, and we're going to win. I know it." He glared at them all as if to say, 'Or else.' "Right. Its time. Good luck, all of you."

They walked together out onto the pitch, standing opposite the Slytherin team.

Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.

"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her. Harry generally expected the same. He knew it would only take one intentional injury to show the Slytherin team that rough play would not be aloud.

After both teams mounted their matching set of Nimbus two-thousand and ones, Madam Hooch blew her whistle, and they were off. As Harry took off, he could hear the commentary by third year Lee Jordan, who was a friend of the Weasley twins.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor ― what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too ―"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Lee was being closely watched by Professor McGonagall to ensure fair announcing. Harry took a quick loop around the pitch, enhancing his eyes to not unlike that of a hawk's making him able to see much farther and clearer then Terence Higgs, the Slytherin seeker. An unfair advantage it might be, but Harry felt he had more to do, then just grab the snitch. With his advanced eyes, he had already located the fluttering gold ball, but knew if he grabbed it too soon, ending the game moments after it started, there would be no fun for the other players. Seeing that Higgs was nowhere near finding the snitch, Harry turned his attention to the quaffle. The Slytherin captain was in possession and heading for the Gryffindor goal hoops. Harry leaned forward on his broom launching himself fiercely toward Flint, diving right across his path just feet in front of him. Flint, started, dropped the quaffle which was scooped up by Katie Bell who took off like a bullet heading back toward the Slytherin hoops. Dodging a bludger, she got too close to one of the Slytherin beaters, who grinned and swung his bat, hitting her in the arm holding the quaffel.

With a lurch, the beaters broom sputtered in the air slowing down significantly. The rider shook the broom, attempting to figure out what happened. He then spun, heading for his Captain, and the turn was obviously quite sluggish compared to the other fliers on the field. After talking to the captain, Flint called a time out, and flew down to Madam Hooch who had landed on the turf. Harry could see Flint pointing his direction, and decided to get involved knowing what had happened.

As he got close he could hear what Flint was saying. "I knew it was too good to be true. Potter sabotaged the brooms."

Harry landed on the pitch next to him. "I warned you, Flint. As long as you play clean those brooms will do exactly as they are supposed to. The moment you cheat, there's a price to pay."

"It was an accident!" Declared the beater in question.

"Now that's a lie." Harry replied. "All the brooms, not just Slytherins, but all including my own are inscribed with an intent based rune system. You had to fully intend to break Katie's arm for it to activate."

"You're lying!" Flint demanded. "That kind of spell work is way beyond you."

"Of course it's beyond me, but then again I never said I'm the one that did it. Are you calling famed Alchemist Nicolas Flamel a liar, because he's the one who did the rune work."

The Slytherin paled significantly. "Um... no. No I'm not, I'm sure it's good work."

"What do these runes do, Mister Potter?" Madam Hooch asked. "Why is Mister Grey's broom so much slower now?"

"It's a temporary transfiguration, when activated it changes the control runes on it to match that of the old Starburst 10's. It'll only last ten minutes... the first time. The second time it'll last twenty minutes. The third time, the change is permanent."

"Alright, now that that's settled," Madam Hooch turned to the grounded beater. "It's still a working broomstick. The rules only allow a change mid-game if it is broken."

The players were soon back in the air, Madam Hooch secretly happy that there was now a system on the field to prevent intentional fouls. Harry's super-eyes quickly located the snitch and as Higgs, the Slytherin seeker was looking entirely in the wrong direction, he instead spent the next few minutes dodging bludgers and interrupting the Slytherin chaser's plays. A few Gryffindor points later, Lee Jordan announced spotting the snitch, forcing Harry to chase after it, as Higgs did so himself. Harry flew hard having a head start on the small golden ball, when he had to suddenly swerve as Flint flew into his path coming within a foot of crashing into him, but given that he kept flying meant he had no intention of actually hitting Harry. The delay allowed Higgs to close the distance and the two wrestled through the air, each attempting to one up the other. As they fought over the lead, the snitch zipped away and was lost again. The two seekers separated and began to search once more.

Harry was unable to see the snitch, which meant it was probably hiding for the moment under the spectator stands. He headed back to play with the Slytherin chasers again, when his broom violently bucked under him.

"The hell?" he muttered.

The broom bucked again, this time harder, almost throwing him off, and he could feel the foreign magic surrounding it as the constant-chanted curse interfered with the control runes. Constant-chant curses were something that fell out of use long ago, in favor of instant-cast curses, as the long, chanted spells required unblinking eye contact. The problem was that constant-chant curses couldn't be interrupted by a simple finite, they required a similarly chanted counter-curse, and Harry was in no place to chant clearly, while wrestling a broom.

He quickly dropped a sticking charm on the broom, attaching both legs and one hand, while using the other to activate his inscribed flight runes. The curse on the broom made him unable to disable it's flight capability, so the best he could do was hold on. He could have dropped off the broom and flown away, but didn't want to do anything that would blow his cover so publicly. That... and he was kind of having fun riding a bucking broomstick. The ride lasted another half a minute, before it stopped, and he was able to quickly dive, catching the snitch. Having been attacked, he now had more important things to worry about, then the Quidditch match.

"It was Snape." Hermione said.

They were back at Hagrid's hut. Hermione, Neville, Sophie, and Hagrid himself had met Harry outside of the locker rooms, where they headed together to the hut to discuss what happened.

"He was cursing your broom." She concluded.

"Rubbish." Hagrid said. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

"Maybe because he's hated me since the moment I set foot in this school." Harry answered. "That, and I took away his bite, by requesting the review by the board."

"Now I don't know nothin' bout that." He said nervously, obvious not telling the total truth. Harry sighed, not wanting to grill a friend for information.

"How did you know he was the one cursing me, anyway?" He asked Hermione.

"I saw him through Hagrid's binoculars, he was staring at you not blinking, and muttering. So I went over there, under the stands and I... um..."

"You what?" Harry asked.

"She lit him on fire." Neville said, wearing a huge grin. "Used one of those bluebell flames she's so good at, right on the bottom of his robes."

"Really, Mione?" Harry was quite amazed that she would do something so against the rules.

"He was cursing you." She said. "It was enough to make him break eye contact."

"Well thank you for that. Might have saved my life."

They enjoyed drinking tea while looking for a different subject to talk about.

"So what did you think of the security on the brooms? What happened to Grey's."

"I was wondering what that was." Sophie said.

Harry explained the intent based runes, and the punishment for activating them. "The rune work was done by Nicolas Flamel."

Hagrid nosily dropped his tea cup, though to fit him, it was more like a tea bowl. "Ya know Nicolas Flamel?"

"Like I said, he did the rune work on the school brooms. How do you know him, Hagrid?"

"Dumbledore asked me for help protecting his stone... I shouldn't a told you tha'."

"What stone?" Hermione asked.

"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."

Unlike the others, Harry knew exactly what stone they were talking about. "It's nice that Professor Dumbledore trust you enough to help him."

"It sure is. He was right happy when I showed him Fluffy."

"What's fluffy?" Neville asked.

"No, I shouldn't a said nothin. Yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel."

"Of course, Hagrid, you're right." Harry spoke over his friends who looked like they wanted to protest. "Sorry for putting you on the spot like that."

The four students spent another half hour enjoying their tea and spending time with their friend, before returning to the castle.

Later that night, once everyone was asleep, Harry shut and silenced the curtains around his bed. "I know why the stone hasn't self destructed yet."

"Why is that?" Hedwig asked, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I found out after the game. I don't think he's studying it at all. Hagrid said that he lent Dumbledore some kind of a dog named fluffy to protect it, and I'm willing to bet that's what's on that third-floor out-of-bounds hallway."

"Well, let's go see, shall we?"

Hedwig rode Harry's shoulder downstairs and were almost out of the common room, when an unexpected voice interrupted their progress.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, standing from where she was lying down on one of the couches, book in hand.

"Um... out?" Harry replied.

"It's way past curfew." She said. "You'll get in trouble."

"I'll be okay." He sighed. "I want to know what Dumbledore is doing on the third-floor. You can't tell me you aren't the slightest bit curious."

She looked uncomfortable answering that. "Well... a little."

"Well then I'll tell you what I've found when I get back." He moved over to Hermione and hugged her, causing her to blush deeply. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

Harry headed back to the exit portal, and was almost out, when Hermione found her voice again. "Well, if you insist on going, I better go along to keep you out of trouble."

Hermione made it sound like she was going as a favor, but Harry could see the curiosity in her eyes. She wanted answers just as much as he did.

They moved through the darkened hallway at a fair clip, led by Harry's senses, which were currently enhanced by his metamorphic powers. He stopped as his sharp hearing picked up the voice of Filch, the caretaker, who was muttering to his demon cat. Harry quickly clamped his hand over Hermione's mouth, and pulled her into a deep alcove behind a suit of armor. She squeaked, surprised at the sudden contact.

"Shh. Filch." He said. The girl got very still, and watched as moments later, the man passed by carrying an oil lamp. Once gone, she spun around. "That was close, how did you know he was there?"

"I have good ears. I heard him talking to that mangy cat of his. He's gone now, let's keep going."

They were soon outside of the door leading to the third floor corridor on the right-hand side.

"It's locked." Harry said.

"Allow me." Hermione pulled out her wand and tapped the door. "Alohomora!"

With a soft click, the door door unlocked, allowing the girl to open it, and begin to move into the dark room.

"I can't see anything." She said. Unfortunately, Harry could see all too well. Hermione began to move forward trying to make out what the shadowy figure in the room was. Harry grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her back, just as the monster in the room lunged forward at her. A huge three-headed dog attempted to take a bite out of them as Harry dragged Hermione out, Hedwig flapping her wings and making a soft barking hooting sound in panic.

They were out the door quickly, slamming it behind them.

"What was that?!" Hermione nearly shrieked.

"I think that," Harry said, "was Fluffy."


	10. Year 01 Chapter 10 Climbing A Mountain

AN: I've recently gotten reviews saying things like "I don't buy that Harry would forget the fact that Voldemort is in Quirrells head, or forget about the mirror."

To clarrify: Yes there is time travel in this story, but unlike other stories, he DOES NOT have knowledge of the future. He didn't forget the mirror or Fluffy because he has never seen them before.

Chapter 10

"What is the Headmaster thinking having something like that in a school full of children?" Hermione ranted. After the close call the night before, she couldn't stop worrying about the creature on the third-floor. They all huddled together over a table in the Gryffindor common room, discussing in whispered voices the events from the night before.

"And then telling us not to go there during the welcome feast." Neville commented. "With how easy it was for you two to get through the door, I can't imagine it took the Weasley twins long to find themselves inside."

"Probably were there the first night back." Harry said.

"That problem aside, I noticed last night the dog was standing on a trap door." Harry squinted internally. He had been hoping that she hadn't noticed the door in all the running away. He had wanted to keep her away from the third-floor, after seeing the danger involved, leaving him to figure out what Dumbledore was planning alone. Unfortunately, Hermione was like a dog with a bone, working a problem until there is nothing left of it. "I wonder what it's protecting."

"Oh, I already know that." Harry said, hoping that giving her the answers would placate the girl enough to move on.

"What?" She seemed shocked. "You know?"

"Well... yeah. It wasn't hard to work out. Hagrid said it was between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel. After I found out he was doing the rune-work on the brooms, I researched him. He's a master Alchemist who worked with Dumbledore for a while. He also is famous for creating the sorcerers stone, also known as the philosophers stone."

"I've heard of that. It makes lead into gold."

"Also makes the elixir of life." Neville added.

"But don't you see, that explains everything." Hermione said, getting excited by the idea of having answers to her problems. "Professor Snape must be trying to steal it."

That drew Harry up short. "Um... what? How do you figure that?"

"Well, during the Halloween feast, you weren't there, so when Professor Quirrell came in announcing that a troll was in the castle, we knew you didn't know, so we went looking for you." Hermione blushed lightly as she explained her reasoning. "We couldn't find you, but we ran into Professor Snape, and he was limping and his leg was all bloody. Don't you see, he much have let the troll in as a distraction, and tried to get past fluffy."

Harry thought about it for a minute. "I guess that makes sense. At least I can't see any flaws in your logic."

"So what do we do about it?" Neville asked.

"I don't know yet." Harry answered. "Christmas break is coming up, you both are going home, right?"

"Yeah, my parents love Christmas," Hermione said. "We go all out, decorations, a huge tree, the works."

"We only have one holiday tradition," Neville said, "otherwise it's just me and Gram. I think she's hosting a ball this year."

Harry squinted slightly. He hated the pureblood balls. They were a lot of posturing, a lot of people stroking their own egos.

"What about you, Harry?" Hermione asked. "What do you usually do on Christmas?"

Harry thought back to the wide array of yule holidays he's lived through, and the one constant throughout each one. Snuggling up with Hedwig.

"Oh it's mostly just me." He answered. "Just finding a warm place to curl up."

Hermione tried to imagine a life where someone as all around good as Harry had to spend his holiday alone, and didn't like what she came up with. "You could come to my parents house. I bet they'd love to have you, if I asked them."

Harry was quite surprised. He was planning on volunteering to stay at the school to watch Snape in case he tried to get past fluffy again. He knew he could just as easy plant an alert ward on the door, but was surprised all the same.

"Um... Okay, yeah, that sounds great." He said. "Let me know what they say."

They headed down to lunch, where they found the pink haired girl waiting for them in the entry hall. "Harry, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, Tonks." Harry looked to his other two friends. "Go ahead, I'll join you in a mo'.

Once alone, Tonks hugged Harry tightly. "I don't know what you said to Andy, but he apologized to me this morning for making me cry."

"I didn't say much, just reminded how it's bad to take advantage of people."

"Well, all the same, thank you."

The three first years sat at the Gryffindor table, soon joined by another first year, this one with a round face and wavy brown hair. Harry, always on the lookout for new students to help, asked the girl her plans for the holiday.

"My mom lives in Arizona. Phoenix, actually, in the United States."

"Oh, and... Sorry, I just realized I don't even know your name."

"I'm Bella Swan."

"Ah, well hello, Bella Swan. So, what are you doing at Hogwarts if you are from the states? Aren't there any magic schools in that country?"

"I don't know." She said. "My mom and I were living in London when I turned eleven. Professor McGonagall came to our house to tell me about being a witch."

"Oh, well that makes sense. How are you getting back and forth?"

"The Professor made the fireplace at my mom's house part of the floo network. I have to take the Hogwarts train back, and then use the fireplace at platform nine and three quarters."

At this point, Hermione looked confused, not knowing what the floo network was, or what the fireplace had to do with it.

"Oh, I know," Bella said. "I hadn't heard of it either." She went on to explain to Hermione and Harry, who pretended to be unknowing, about that form of magical travel.

It turned out that Bella had never heard of Quidditch, being muggle-born, but had fallen in love with the sport after that first game. She and Harry had many exciteded discussions about the teams that play professionaly, along with Harry's perspective on the upcoming school games.

After that, December came on quickly, Hedwig complaining at night about having to fly through the snow, but still happy to take letters to Hermione's parents, who had agreed to host Harry for the holiday. She told him how they were good people who lit up every time they received a letter from their daughter. He then decided to find a way to help them keep in touch easier. Having a new project let him put off worrying about the castle wards, which he still hadn't worked out a way to fix.

After Slytherin lost the quidditch match, Malfoy decided it was time to try showing up Harry, but had so far failed. What the shape-shifter found entertaining, was watching the constant sniping between Malfoy and Ron Weasley. It reached a head one day, after a particularly frigid potions class. The cold didn't bother Harry, as his total control over his body allowed him to just turn up his natural body temperature, but he could see the others leaning over the warm cauldrons, which would be especially dangerous if a failed potion exploded.

As the class let out, and everyone headed to lunch, they were held up by a huge wall of green pine needles blocking the entry to the great hall. All it took was one insult from Malfoy to have he and Ron rolling on the ground hitting each other. Professor Snape pulled them apart and started to take points from Ron, before stopping mid-sentence. Harry didn't know if he was more upset about almost taking points from his own house, or the fact that he couldn't take points at all.

"It's good to see that Ron Weasley is making friends." Harry noted sarcastically.

After Hagrid finished wrestling the tree the rest of the way through the door, he noticed his three favorite students. "Hello, you lot, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

The three of them followed Hagrid inside the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations. "Ah, Hagrid, the last tree ― put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

While Hagrid was placing the tree, the three first-years sat at the Gryffindor table, where they were joined by Sophie and Bella, and the group enjoyed lunch on the last day before holiday break.

-o0o-

"Can't you see them?" Harry asked, as he pet one of the Thestral pulling the carriages, knowing full well why his friends couldn't.

"See what?" Hermione asked.

"The horse thing pulling the carriage." He grabbed her hand, pulling her forward. "Here, if you can't see them, maybe you can feel them."

"Harry there's nothing there to fe-" She stopped mid word when her hand connected with the side of the thesteral. "Oh wow. There really is something there. But I can't see anything. Neville, come look at this."

The boy sidled up along side his friends, carefully reaching out until he too could feel the horse-creature. "Wow. What is that?"

"Maybe we should ask Hagrid about them when we get back." Harry said, "I bet he'll know."

They pet the thesteral a moment longer, then got on the carriage, where Sophie and Bella were already aboard, giving them odd looks. They had to explain the strange invisible horse-creature to their friends, who seemed amazed, and once the carriage stopped at the station, had Harry lead them over to feel the animal for themselves.

"I wonder why you are the only one who could see them." Bella said.

"I don't know." Harry lied.

The train ride was uneventful, the five first years talking about their lives and what they want for Christmas.

"My mom always gets me great gifts." Bella said. "I love my dad, but he still thinks of me as a little girl. He gets me stuff that would have been good years ago."

"You know," Harry said, "That's the first time I've heard you mention your dad."

"Oh, well, he doesn't live with us. He lives in this little town in Washington state."

"Well then, you should definitely go visit him. I imagine it's nice having parents."

The others were silent, having forgot the fact that Harry was alone in the world. They all felt bad, and Bella decided Harry was right. When she visited her father that summer, she would definitely put forth more effort to spend time with him.

The arrival at kings cross was just as noisy and hectic as their earlier arrival at Hogsmeade station.

Once off the train, all of the group was introduced to the others families before going their separate ways. Bella showed the others the floo network as she disappeared in a flash of green fire. Neville introduced the others to his gran, before they too walked into the fireplace. Sophie's parents seemed thrilled that she had a solid group of friends who cared about her. The girl shyly hugged all of the others, before they too left, this time through the magical barrier into the muggle world. Hermione's parents were similarly happy that their only daughter had a good group of friend. While introductions were going around, Harry noticed her father slyly evaluating the two boys, which made the shape-shifter wonder if the man was really concerned about his daughters future love life that early. Either way, the man was quite hospitable, and treated both boys quite nicely. After the others were gone, Hermione's parents, who were introduced as Dan and Emma Granger, led the two children out of the station and toward the parking lot.

Emma Granger gave Harry a good idea of what Hermione would like when she was older. She had the same chestnut brown hair, but hers was more wavy and styled then the bushy wash that was her daughters. Dan was surprisingly shorter then his wife, with short brown hair of his own. He wasn't particularly fit, from years of a career as a dentist, but the way his face lit up upon seeing his daughter showed a man who truly loved his family.

The two parents and two children moved through the collected cars before stopping next to a decent sized sedan. Hermione's trunk was loaded into the boot, Harry's still shrunk in his pocket.

"If you un-shrink it, won't you get in trouble for performing magic?" The inquisitive girl asked.

"No. it's not really me performing the magic." Harry explained. "The trunk has a built in shrink and enlarge charm."

"Oh wow! Can I watch as you enlarge it?"

At this point they had already moved into the car, and were on the way to Hermione's home. He thought about it for a moment, and decided it wouldn't harm anything if he showed her some of the interior of the trunk as well.

"So tell us all about Hogwarts, honey." Emma said.

Hedwig nuzzled Harry's cheek, as he sat back, listening contentedly while his friend talked a mile-a-minute, reciting every second of her first four months at the castle. The story of the troll made her parents rather upset, but they were easily convinced that it was just a freak occurrence. It would have been a lot worse if she was anywhere near the thing. Harry was quite pleased at how happy his friend was, and hoped his plans for Christmas would make the time she was forced to be away from her family a little bit easier for them.

The car soon pulled up in front of a quaint two-story house with tan siding and a rustic yet comfortable feel. Harry liked the house immediately, and knew he would feel at home there. Offering to carry Hermione's trunk inside, he followed her up the stairs to a bedroom that he found surprisingly pink. He never expected the girls bedroom to be so... girly. There were frilly pillows on the bed and a number of stuffed animals. Harry didn't know what he had expected, maybe tan or a soft blue.

"Huh." He said.

"What?" Hermione was worried now. She didn't know why she cared what her friend thought of her room, but she suddenly really did.

"Nothing," He responded. "It's nice, I just never pictured you the pink frills and lace type."

"It's just how I like my room." She explained. "I imagine you would have expected lots of books, right?"

"Well... yeah."

"I do have lots of books, they're just not kept in here, silly."

Harry followed her down the hall and through a door that led to a room with a comfortable looking couch, a table and four chairs, and wall-to-wall bookcases, all of which were packed full.

"See, now if it weren't for the lack of a bed, I'd have thought this was your room."

"Well," she blushed, "I have fallen asleep on that couch plenty of times."

Harry grinned at the idea of a tiny little frizzy haired Hermione, asleep under a book that's nearly bigger then she was.

"So, how about you show me to where I'll be staying, then I will show you the wonder that is a wizards trunk."

She led him to what was obviously a guest room, the neutral colors more what he had originally expected in Hermione's.

"Okay, can I see the trunk now?" She asked.

"Well, I figure that your parents haven't seen much magic yet, so I thought that since you gave me a tour, now it's my turn.

He followed her down stairs to the main sitting room, where her parents were relaxing.

"Mum, dad, Harry offered to show us all how his trunk works." They smiled, interested in the world their daughter had entered.

"Okay," Harry said, pulling the playing card-deck sized case from his pocket, and holding it out in front of him. "This trunk is designed to respond entirely to my will. For example, I can use verbal commands, but really, all I have to do is mentally want it to expand. At those words, it grew larger until it was back to the size of a normal trunk.

"It responds to my mental command, So all I have to do is place my hand on the lid," Harry said, doing so as he spoke," And will it to open to which ever compartment I want."

"There's more than one?" Emma asked, amazed at the tiny trunk that was now taller then she was.

"Yes," He answered. "For example, the first compartment is my wardrobe." The trunk clicked softly, and the lid swung up, allowing a wardrobe that was much larger then should have been able to fit inside rose out of the trunk. He opened the double doors of the wardrobe, showing his clothing hung neatly within. He set his hand on the wardrobe door, willing it back into it's expanded space. The wardrobe lowered back down, and Harry shut the lid once more. He then willed open the third compartment.

"This is one of my personal favorites."

Hermione looked within. "It's just a plain old trunk."

"If you learn anything from me about the magical world," He said, "Let it be this. Looks can be deceiving. Why don't you stand in that 'plain old trunk,' then tell me what it is."

Hermione looked a bit nervous at the unknown, but trusted Harry not to hurt her. She stepped into the trunk, and let out a small 'oh' as the floor started descending, her riding it down. As soon as the top of her head was below the bottom of the non-expanded trunk space, the floor reappeared leaving Hermione gone from sight.

"Who's next?" Harry asked.

Her parents looked at the empty cupboard. "Is it safe? Where is she?" Dan asked.

"Of course it's safe. I wouldn't allow anything to happen to her. It's a lift, she's inside the trunk."

"But that's the trunk." Dan said.

"No," Harry responded. "That's just the access lift. Step in and see for yourself."

Emma stepped inside with out any fear, trusting that her daughter was fine. At the moment, Hermione who was still standing in the shaft where the lift had deposited her, felt a small push that she would years later recognize as a very slight banishing charm, nudging her out of the way of the incoming lift carrying her mother. She was too shocked at the entry hall ahead of her, amazed how much bigger the trunk was on the inside to have moved forward on her own. Of course, had she known what waited beyond the door, the entryway wouldn't have been anything by comparison. After stepping forward out of the shaft, she saw her mother land behind her, just as shocked as her daughter. Her mother stepped forward, just before the lift descended again, this time carrying Dan. He, like the others was amazed at the sight before him, but he too was nudged forward, so Harry could enter the room as well.

"You were so right, Hermione." Harry said. "This really is just a plain old trunk."

"Oh hush, you."she said, lightly smacking his shoulder, opposite the one where Hedwig sat peacefully watching her man's antics.

"Okay, so... this is my entry hall. This door here," He said, pointing to a door next to the lift shaft, "Is lockd for now. What happens is that I can also oxpand the trunk to the size of a full doorway, then we can enter and exit through this door. Makes it easier with this many people, instead of taking the lidt one at a time."

Harry led them across the entry hall to a door in the far wall. "The door is sealed with all kinds of security magic. Of which I am the currently the only one who can open it. If you had tried, it would simply have stayed sealed. Unless of course you had intended to injure or in any way cause harm to anyone within. Then the security would have been a bit more... dangerous."

"You're only a first year." Emma said. "Did you make all this?"

"Oh, no." He replied. "I got it this way."

"Where did you buy it?" She asked. "I don't remember anything like this in Diagon Alley."

"I found it in my parents vault at Gringotts," He lied. "I figured maybe it was my dads. According to the instructions that came with it, it is a magical military special forces grade trunk."

"Oh." Hermione's voice turned sad, remembering that Harry didn't have his parents around anymore. Emma picked up the tone as well, and remembering what she had read on the subject of the boys parents in her letters, decided to mother him a bit. She had always wanted a second child, but couldn't for medical reasons, and thought that Harry could use a bit of loving attention from some adults, maybe a hug now and then.

"Anyway, follow me." Harry opened the door to the gasps of the three people behind him. "Welcome to my flat."

After the tour of the third compartment, he led them to the door to another. "This trunk has quite a few rooms in it. I expect you'll like this one the best, 'Mione." He opened the door showing his guests the sprawling four story library that was stocked with books which he had spent many years collecting. Of course, as far as his friend and her family were to know, the library came that way.

Dan chuckled at the look on his daughters face. "I think she's died and gone to heaven."

"I was going to save this for the end, but I think I have better plans to end this tour."

After dragging Hermione out of the library almost kicking and screaming, they were shown the stocked potions lab. The lab had three walls lined with stone counter tops, which were littered with sporadically placed cauldrons. The fourth wall had wide floor-to-ceiling bookcases on both sides of the door, lined with potions manuals and cases upon cases of potions ingredients. Unknown to the visitors, one of the bookcases covered a concealed room where Harry stored his more dangerous and illegal ingredients. Behind a bookcase opposite the hidden store room, was Harry and Hedwig's combined research laboratory.

"No wonder you do so well in Professor Snape's class." Hermione commented. "You have your own practice space."

"Yes, well, the man is a horrible teacher. Everything I know is self taught, right here. I spent most of the summer after finding out I was a wizard in here reading."

"I'm so jealous of all this." She said. "Access to all this knowledge, and your own potions space."

"If you remind me on the way out, I'll key you into the security here, so you can come and go whenever you want."

"Really?" she asked, excited. "You'd do that?"

"Of course, you're my friend. Now, there's one more room I wanted to show you."

He led the three Grangers through the door by the kitchen, which cause Dan to immediately pause. He recognized the room instantly from his time down at the club, where he enjoyed shooting skeet. "A gun range?"

"It came with the trunk." Harry explained. "Like I said, this was originally meant for military use. It's not like I have guns here. I'm eleven. Though I have used the spell range to work on my casting."

Dan didn't seem too pleased with the room, but believed it when Harry said he didn't have guns. They continued on to the circular space at the far end.

"I was thinking that as an ending to the tour, when we eat dinner tonight, instead of in the dining room," He said as he opened a door marked with three horizontal blue wavy lines. "We could have a picnic on the beach." The sound of the surf crashing on the sand rumbled through the open door, shocking the others into silence.

As they moved out of the range room, they stepped out into what appeared to be a sunny afternoon, sand crunching underfoot as they walked on the beach.

"How..." Emma asked, unable to complete a sentince. "I don't..."

"This is one of the rooms in my trunk designed for the soldiers to train in different terrain. There are actually four." Harry showed them to a comfortable beach-house that was overlooking the ocean. "There are too many recreational things here, though, if you ask me. I have to wonder if training was just an excuse. For example, in the mountain range room, on top of the mountain there's a small ski resort, complete with with ski's and snowboards."

He led them to a panel on a pedestal in the entry hall right next to the front door. The panel faced out the window, looking down on the beach and had a wide array of rune stones which could be moved about. "This controls the world in this room, everything from the weather to the number of people on the beach. The people of course being animated mannequins. Were I a soldier in training, I could populate the beach with fake people that I would have to move through to find an evil wizard, who would also be an animated mannequin."

"This is amazing." Emma muttered.

"This is nothing. Here it's just people. In the cityscape room, I can populate a small portion of a working city to train in, with people walking, riding bikes, even driving cars through the area."

"How does that work?" Dan asked.

"No idea." Harry lied. He didn't make the trunk, but had a pretty solid understanding of the rune and spell-work involved. "Magic, I guess?"

Hermione chuckled at his smart-ass remark. "So, Picnic on the beach?"

"Sounds great." Emma answered.

"Also I was thinking we could go skiing some time during the hols."

"Do you know how to ski?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "How hard can it be?"


	11. Year 01 Chapter 11 Eagle Storage

AN: This is NOT a twilight crossover. Yes, I put Bella Swan in this story, but that is a reference to another Harry Potter fanfiction. Don't worry, the character is currently periphery, and as I'm writing this for my own fun, if you don't like it, then I'm sorry, but it's not going to change it. I'm not curently planning on having the vampires of twilight in the story, but even if that changes, they will only be periphery as well. They won't be major characters.

Chapter 11

"Hurry up, Harry!" Hermione called. "We're going to be late."

Harry wondered how you could be late for shopping, but knew not to question women on that topic. It was still early morning, but they were going to Diagon Alley for Christmas presents, as well as stopping at some muggle stores.

"I'm coming!" He called back, running out to the car where the Grangers were ready to go. They were quickly on their way to London through the pre-Christmas traffic. Eventually reaching Diagon alley, the car traffic was nothing compared to the foot traffic. The alley was packed with wizards and witches bustling about, or conversing in the street, the general atmosphere only beat by the day after the Hogwarts letters get sent. After waiting in line in Gringotts for Hermione's parents to change pounds into galleons, Harry followed her around Flourish and Blotts, carefully keeping track of what books the girl looked like she wanted.

He soon split off from the others, to buy his presents for them. The first stop was Waterson's Travelling Wares.

"Hello again, mister Potter." Mister Waterson said. "back so soon?"

"Actually, yes." Harry responded. "I'd like to make a purchase for a friend's Christmas gift."

"But of course, right this way."

Harry spent the next few minutes viewing a few different options, before making his selection. After placing his purchase in his pocket, he crossed the way to the book store, where he managed to avoid Hermione who, unsurprisingly, was there again. He made a few more purchases, including a collection of Herbology books for Neville, who had said it was his favourite subject.

He wandered for a bit searching for something for his friends. He knew that his plans for Hermione's parents would be good for Bella as well, maybe he'd do the same for Sophie. While walking around he decided on a whim to pop into Quality Quidditch Supplies, a few purchases later, he was ready to continue on. He purchased a collection of wizarding sweets to add to Neville's present, before calling his work finished.

After meeting up with the three Grangers, he followed them out into muggle London, where he insisted on stopping at a home goods store. There, he split off on his own, so they wouldn't see him rifle through a number of mirrors, both hand-held and desktop, which he had special plans for. At that point Hermione was starting to get antsy.

"Don't you think we should go pick out a tree before it gets too late in the day?"

"I don't know, sweetie," Emma said, grinning. "Shouldn't we get lunch first?"

Harry saw the way her parents were smiling, and had a feeling this was about usual for Christmas with the Grangers.

"I suppose we could. But we did have a big breakfast… I'm not even really hungry yet, honestly. Just… wouldn't want all the good ones to be gone and be stuck with the tatty, browned ones." Hermione appealed to them.

"Oh no," Dan said dramatically, "That wouldn't do at all."

Hermione pouted at the way her parents were trying not to laugh at this point.

"Okay, okay," Dan held up his hands, "you've talked me into it. Far be it from me to ruin Christmas by dooming the lot of us to a tatty, brown tree."

The four of them returned to the car, Harry grinning to himself. He was having a very good time so far, watching the interplay between the girl and her parents. He had always found family interactions fascinating, never having had his own. Any time he was included in family activities, he always cherished it. This time was no different.

The tree lot reminded Harry of a man made forest. He thought that Hedwig would have loved the place, had she not had to stay home. After all, an owl riding a boys shoulder may not have stuck out in Diagon Alley, but in muggle London, it would have been quite noticeable.

Hermione grabbed the hands of both her parents, and dragged them deep into the tree lot, Harry following along, while she critiqued the trees as they went.

"Too short. Too thin. Not full enough. Oh, no, this won't do, too scrawny. Where are the Douglases? Or even the Alpines, they're usually fuller, though the branches are a tad flimsier. Fullness before hardness, I say. Oh, this way." She led them to a section of trees that, to Harry, looked just like all the other trees, but seemed to be something special to Hermione. She spent some time comparing the trees, pointing out perceived flaws that Harry couldn't see, even having them shown to him.

"It's this one, dad." She said, having decided on one. Her father looked it over, before agreeing.

"Yes, I concur. That is out tree." He walked a few steps away to wave down the lot attendant, leaving the two children not truly alone in the human forest, but as close to it as they could get.

"Thank you, Hermione." Harry said, and quickly hugged the girl.

"What for?" She asked, blushing deeply.

"For giving me a place to go. It's been a long time since I've felt like I was a part of a family."

Hermione looked like she was about to cry at that statement, and hugged him back. Unknown to them both, Emma was standing just to the other side of the trees, having heard what they said, and was rather upset at the idea that a boy who was so polite and always seemed to go out of the way to make the people around him happy, could be treated in any way to not make him feel included. She and Dan didn't know much about his home life, but what little they did pick up wasn't painting a pretty picture.

After the tree was strapped to the roof of the car, the four returned home, where Dan spent the next half hour adjusting the tree in a stand, with the Christmas queen Hermione supervising. After that they started sifting through dust-caked boxes of decorations that Dan had brought down from the attic the day before.

Harry was sitting on the couch watching their antics, when Emma sat next to him and began running her hand through his unruly hair, the way she would her daughters when they were curled up in front of a roaring fire. "Are you having fun so far, Harry?"

"I am, Mrs. Granger, a lot." He answered, confused by her sudden closeness.

"That's good. I want you to know you can always consider this a second home to you, if you'd like."

He realised that she must have overheard what he had said at the tree lot, but decided if it made her happy to give him a family, then he wouldn't protest. "Thank you. I'd like that."

"I'm going to make hot cocoa. Would you like some?"

"Um... yes please." He replied.

She stood, kissed him on the top of his head, then headed into the kitchen. If Harry tried really hard, he could pretend it was the dust in the air that made his eyes water.

Having had to sneak out a few times to gather the needed material, he began work on the mirrors, transforming them into something more useful. It took a few nights, where he would work in secret behind a silencing charm, as to not wake anyone as he liked talking with Hedwig while working. He finally finished the Sunday before Christmas, which fell on Wednesday. After writing letters explaining what the gifts did, he cast a featherweight charm on the packages, then handed Bella's to Hedwig. She was back ten minutes later, with a return present for Harry.

"It's sunny there right now... and way too hot." Hedwig complained.

Next, he sent her off with a present for Sophie. It took a little longer for her to return, but she again came back. After that she was off to Neville. As a final trip for the night, he sent a present to Tonks, hoping she liked what he got her. After returning with a fourth present, Harry was smiling. He hadn't really expected anything from the girls, who hadn't been friends nearly as long as Hermione and Neville were with him. After setting the presents aside to save for Christmas morning, he stretched out to sleep. The next morning Hedwig was taking wing again, delivering Hermione's presents to their friends. She decided to take much longer, as a ten minute trip to The States might raise a few questions. Hermione was ecstatic to receive presents back from their friends, not having received any from non-family before Hogwarts.

The Grangers had taken off the last few days before the twenty-fifth to enjoy time with their daughter, so they spent the day skiing in Harry's trunk, followed by a barbecue in the their back yard. After dinner was finished, Emma pulled out a wrapped box, the kind usually with clothing in it.

"Harry, we have one present Dan and I would like you to open early." She handed the box over to him.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "It's only Christmas eve."

"Very sure." She said. "This one is special."

He glanced at Hermione, who seemed just as confused as he was. He carefully accepted the package, and tore the paper, while wandlessly checking for any curses. Once he was sure the package was clear of any magic what so ever, and that the Grangers weren't being forced to deliver the box against their wills, he opened it... and froze. Inside the box was a red and green Christmas stocking with his name monogrammed on it. He delicately touched it before looking up.

"Thank you." Emma hugged him before Hermione could drag him inside to the fireplace, where she could make sure it was placed just right. He was rather surprised, but also happy at the warmth he felt in his chest when he saw the personalized stocking. That night he went to sleep with a smile on his face.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Harry peeled his eyes open to find Hermione jumping on his bed. "It's Christmas!"

"Five min'is Mione." He mumbled still only barely conscious.

"Five minutes nothing," She said. "There are presents to be had."

Still yawning, Harry scooped Hedwig up in his arms, and carried her downstairs to the sitting room, where Dan sat with his eyes closed, looking like he was trying not to start snoring again. Emma came into the room from the kitchen, carrying two cups of steaming coffee. She looked more awake then her husband, probably having already partaken of the caffinated goodness. Hermione was the only one in the room fully awake. She was almost bouncing where she sat in front of the tree. Harry plopped onto the floor next to her, settling Hedwig on his shoulder, who was just starting to wake up herself. Once her parents were situated and sipping their drinks, Hermione dove onto the wrapped parcels bellow the tree.

"Here you go, Harry, this one is from me." She held up another box, looking at the label. "This one is to all of us from Harry."

"Well open it, honey." Dan said.

Harry watched as she opened the box, saving his until after. She reached into the parcel in her hands and pulled out two mirrors, one about four inches square, the second closer to six by eight inches with a crystal about one inch square tethered to it.

"What are these, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"They are communication mirrors." He explained. "I thought that you would like a better way to talk to your parents while at school then just by post, so I had these made for you. You, Hermione get the small one, and your parents get the big one. What you do, is you press that rune in the bottom corner there, and speak the name of who you want to call. The same to answer incoming calls. The mirror you are calling will vibrate until answered, or the caller hangs up by pressing the rune again."

Hermione and her parents looked amazed at the mirrors. "What's the crystal for?" She asked.

"Since your parents are not magical, they can't activate or answer the mirrors themselves. The crystal is a runed power stone. It basically powers the answering key when you press the crystal to it. It's what lets your parents use it. I also sent a few out to our friends, so they can talk to their families, so if you want you can try to call them later. I also have one of my own, and there's one in the sitting room of my trunk loft."

"Thank you so much, Harry." Emma said, getting up from her seat and hugging the boy.

"Yes, thank you." Dan said. "You can't imagine how much better this will make us feel, knowing we can contact you two at any time."

Hermione hugged Harry tightly. "Thank you."

"Anything for my friends." He whispered in response.

He next opened the present from Hermione which contained a selection of his favourite wizard candy, and a package of treacle tarts.

"I baked those for you." She said shyly. "I know they are your favourite."

"Wow, Thank you." Harry said smiling. He took a deep sniff of the tarts, which smelled amazing. "I can't wait to try them."

Hermione received an array of clothing from her parents, as did Harry. She then passed an envelope to her dad. "This one is also to all of us from Harry."

He opened it to find four strips of thick parchment, and a folded up tablecloth. Looking quite confused, he read aloud from one of the parchments. "Quidditch eastern division championship."

"You got us Quidditch tickets?" Hermione asked.

"Yes." Harry answered. "I know it's not your favourite activity, but I thought your parents might appreciate it, plus it is a part of our world, I figured they would want to experience it."

"This is that sport that Hermione has said you play, right?" Emma asked.

"And what's the tablecloth for?" Dan wondered, getting excited at the idea of discovering a new sport.

"It's a portkey to take us there and back. The game is being played in New York, in the States, between the New York Knights, and the Washington Eagles."

The present unwrapping continued with Dan and Emma exchanging more with their daughter. Hermione received multiple books from their friends from Hogwarts. Harry got a collection of candy both muggle and wizard from Sophie and a book about seeker tactics from Bella. The whole time, Emma held the large communication mirror in her hands like it was the most important item in the room. To her it was, it was a way to keep in contact with her daughter while she was away.

Finally, Hermione pulled a heavy box the size of a shoebox from beneath the tree.

"That one's from me." Harry said.

Hermione opened it, finding a box filled with books on top of a bunch of tissue paper. She began to look at the titles, when Harry spoke again. "No, the books are mine. Those were just to add weight to the box."

She set the books aside to find a small brown block on the bottom among the tissue paper.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Say 'enlarge'." Harry responded.

At her verbal command it started to grow, until there was a full size trunk in front of them. It was a soft tan leather with the image of an open book on the lid, along with three black oval stones along the front lip.

"But Harry," Hermione said, "I already have a trunk."

"I know," He replied, "This one is special, it has three compartments. The first two are enlarged storage space, so they are bigger on the inside. But what makes it special is the third one. First you have to bind it to you with a drop of blood."

Hermione retrieved a knife from the kitchen, using it to prick her finger. She spread the drop of the blood on top of the lid which absorbed the it and glowed white for a moment before returning to normal.

"Okay, now press your thumb to the third stone there."

She did as he said, and with a soft 'click' the trunk unlocked. The front of the chest stretched outward, elongating it's size. She opened the lid, showing a staircase starting at ground level, and going down. Harry led the way, followed by Hermione, then her parents. The stairwell ended in a large square room, holding nearly two dozen empty bookcases. On the far wall across from the stairs was a large fireplace, surrounded by a couch and two comfortable looking lounge chairs. In the middle of the room stood a table with four chairs. The top two shelves to the right of the stairs were full of second and third year books on different magical subjects.

"I noticed your library is pretty full, and you've just started in the magical world." Harry explained. "Plus with you living in a muggle house, I thought you'd like to have a place to hide your magical books."

Hermione lunged at Harry, hugging him tightly. "I love it. Thank you."

Emma and Dan returned to the sitting room, while Hermione unloaded the collection of magical books she already owned into her new library. The rest of the day was spent with the family just enjoying being together.

Dinner was disturbed by an owl tapping on the window of the kitchen, carrying a large lumpy package. Emma opened the window, then had to move out of the way as the owl flew to Harry, dropping the package directly into the boy's arms.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. It looks like another present." He looked at the card attached to the package, which he read aloud. "There's a note here. 'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.'"

Harry opened the package allowing a silvery fabric to flow out, falling to the floor. He quickly scooped it up, knowing instantly what it was. "It's a cloak. It's strange, like water made into fabric."

He ran his hands along a cloak he hadn't seen in a very long time, and could feel a strange foreign magic on it, but couldn't do a detailed analysis in present company. He stood up, and slung the cloak around his shoulders, causing the others in the room to gasp.

"Oh my gosh, Harry," Hermione exclaimed. "It's an invisibility cloak. I saw one mentioned in a book."

"Really?" He acted surprised. He looked down and saw that everything below his neck was gone. "This is amazing."

"And it was a family heirloom?" Emma asked.

"Seems that way." Harry replied. "At least that's what the note said."

Dan reached out from across the table and touched where Harry's arm should be. Upon feeling something he couldn't see he grinning like a little boy. "Weird."

Harry pulled the cloak off of himself. "Do you want to try it on?"

Dan looked doubtful. "Oh, no, I couldn't, it's an heirloom."

"No it's quite okay," Harry said, holding out the magical item. "Go ahead."

Dan stood and wrapped the material around his own shoulders which instantly lengthened to fit him. He flipped the hood up over his head, disappearing entirely. "Can you see me?" He asked.

"No, not at all." Harry answered.

The man's footsteps could be heard moving around the room, before a single hand became visible as he lifted a plate, making 'spooky ghost' sound effects, while floating it over the table.

"No good, dad." Hermione said. "We can see your hand." Said hand set the plate back on the table and immediately disappeared.

Emma spoke up next. "Maybe there's a way to make it so it- Dan!" She cut off mid-word, blushing fiercely. Harry sniggered, wondering what he had done.

"It wasn't me," Her husband said. "It was Casper the friendly ghost."

"Well tell Casper not to do... whatever it is he did in front of his daugher." Hermione huffed.

Dan removed the cloak, passing it back to Harry, before returning to the seat in front of his partially eaten dinner.

Later that night, after the others had headed to their rooms to sleep, Harry inspected the cloak carefully while speaking to Hedwig who was stretched out lazily on the bed.

"It's in better shape than I would have expected after twelve hundred years."

"I wonder how it got to you." Hedwig said. "The Potters must be related to Ignottius Perverell."

"Assuming the note wasn't a lie. I recognize Albus's handwriting anywhere."

"It's not like the man doesn't always have some alternate reasoning behind everything he does." Hedwig mumbled, as she rolled over onto her back.

"You were always better at reading people's motivations. If you come up with anything, let me know."

"I still would like to know how Dumbledore got his hands on it."

"Good question." Harry said. He was running scans on the cloak, trying to identify the forein magic. "Ah! That sneaky old git."

"What?"

"He put a tracking charm on the cloak."

"I've never known you to take that long to find a tracking charm."

"What can I say?" Harry grinned at her. "You are too sexy. You distract me. Besides, this is Dumbledore we are talking about. Him and that deathstick of his. And I repeat, what a stupid name of a magnifying focus, 'The Deathstick.'"

Harry sighed at the name. "He was trying quite hard to hide the charm. Were anyone else looking, they wouldn't have found it, but then... I'm just that good."

"Well you take your good self over here and make love to me, before someone tries to come in here, and finds the room sealed and silenced."

Harry grabbed a sheet of parchment and scribbled on it 'tracking charm'. He then pressed his right index finger to the cloak and pulled it back, dragging with it a small off-blue light, the physical manifestation of the tracking charm itself. He pressed his finger to the parchment, which absorbed the light. The instant that was done, he leapt out of the desk chair, shifting forms the moment it took him to stand. Harry, now twenty-five, dove upon the scantly-clad woman lying in his bed.

The Friday two days after Christmas, the four residents of the Granger house, along with a visiting Sophie and one owl stood in the backyard, gathered around the tablecloth that was about to take them across the world. Sophie's parents were both stuck working that weekend, and didn't want their daughter to miss out, so had set up with Dan and Emma to pick her up before hand. Hedwig had settled onto Harry's forearm so that one of her claws could touch the magical travelling tablecloth.

"Everybody hold on to the portkey." Harry instructed. "I hear these rides are a bit fun."

"What do you mean f-" Emma began.

"Activate." Harry said, holding on himself. Everyone felt a tug from their bellybuttons, as if they were being dragged backwards by them. Their feet were off the ground, and the world around them spun in a psychedelic colour scheme. The ride as a whole only lasted a few moments, which was quite good for crossing an ocean.

"-un?" Emma finished, stumbling as her feet hit the ground.

They had landed on the cement floor of a drab room with bare drywall. The only things in the room were the exit door, and two signs. One that had a big emblem of a bird and the words 'Eagle Shipping.' The other said 'Please vacate the premises upon arrival'.

"I don't think I like portkeys." Sophie said, looking a little green.

Harry folded the tablecloth small enough to fit back into the expanded interior envelope it originally came in. Upon opening the door, He made casual not of the 'Authorized personnel only' sign on it. Hermione helped steady Sophie, as the group exited the arrival room, into what appeared to be a large warehouse loaded with stacks and pallets full of boxes. They only took a few steps when a man wearing jeans and a button up shirt with a label that said 'security' approached them. He had stepped out from what appeared to be a break room with a glass window, where Harry could see a few other people with the same uniforms relaxing within.

"Yeah, can I help you folks?" The guard asked. Harry held up the Quidditch tickets. "Ah, right, the stadium. Right this way."

"Thought we were in the wrong place for a moment." Dan commented.

"Ah yes, sorry about that." The man responded. "We have to keep up the façade to uphold the state secrecy act. Are you folks from around these parts?"

"No," Emma answered. "Just over by portkey, we're from across the pond."

"England, then?" The Guard inquired. "Nice. Never been myself."

He led them down an aisle that dead ended at a wall of boxes, which to all outward appearances was against the right exterior wall of the building.

The security guard pulled a wand out of one of his pockets and tapped the box that was at about chest height on the middle stack three times. The two centre stacks of boxes swung outward, showing them to actually be cleverly hidden doors. On the other side of the doors was a series of gates manned by brightly dresses wizards and witches, who were smiling and laughing with other people who were mingling about. The five travellers approached one of the gates, where Harry handed the tickets over to the attendant. She looked at the tickets, then returned them, along with a map of the facility.

"All right, you're camp sight is B-13. That's right here." The woman showed them on the map. "The game begins tomorrow at eleven a m, and goes until the snitch is caught." She again pointed at areas on the map. "These are the designated camping area's for the declared team fans. Eagles here, and Knights there. Just a warning to be careful if you wear any team paraphernalia and go wondering into the opposing teams camp."

"Are they dangerous?" Emma asked, wondering if she should be worried for her children.

"No, we have marked security patrolling, but the fans do drink and get a bit rowdy. We like to make sure everyone knows, especially when there are children in attendance, that's all. Now," She pointed at the map once more. "The stadium entrance is here, and there will be attendants that can direct you to your seats. Also, camp fires are aloud within your designated camp site, but we ask that no fires be left unattended."

"Aright, thank you so much." Dan said, taking the offered map. Once past the gates, the cement beneath their feet gave way to green grass. The roof above was probably ten stories up, but they couldn't tell, as the ceiling was enchanted to show a clear blue sky. The sunlight, although probably fake, was still warm on their skin. They walked past numerous plots, many sporting wizard tents of many designs, from the normal to the quite unusual. Some had their own chimneys with smoke lazily wafting out. Others had odd landscaping, their own gardens, or small picket fences. One tent was bright yellow, with musical notes scrolling along the exterior wall playing music.

The five eventually found their camp sight, and Harry enlarged his trunk, where they were going to be sleeping. He opened the second compartment where he helped the adults unload a set of folding chairs, which were set around a fire pit they built with wood they had purchased the day before. Suddenly a pair of hands covered Harry's eyes.

"Guess who?" A voice said.

"The tooth fairy?" Harry guessed.

"Wrong." The voice said, a slight laugh encroaching.

"Well, it can't be Tonks, as there's no way she could sneak up on me without tripping."

"Hey!" She said, uncovering her eyes. "I am too sneaky."

"Uh huh," Harry replied. "You keep telling yourself that."

She pouted cutely, grumbling about ungrateful friends. There were two older people standing just behind her, who looked like they were trying not to laugh.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friends, Nymphadora?" The woman asked.

The girls hair, which was it's usual pink turned red in embarrassment. Before she could say anything, Harry looked at Tonks. "You're name is Nym-" She clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't even say it."

"But it's a perfectly lovely name, dear." Her father injected.

Tonks growled softly at her father then turned to Harry. "Harry, these are my parents Ted and Andromeda Tonks. Mom, Dad, this is Harry Potter."

"I must say, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mister Potter. We were friends of your parents. They were very good people."

"Thank you." Harry said softly, proud of who his parents were.

"This is Sophie Roper, and this is Hermione Granger." Tonks continued.

Hermione introduced her parents and everyone was just getting comfortable by the fire pit, when the final members of their party arrived. Bella appeared, dragging a man who was looking at everything around him in amazement. It was the same look on Dan and Emma's faces as they walked through the field of tents. At first sight, she let go of the man, and ran closer. She dropped the overnight bag she was carrying as soon as she was close enough, and hugged her friend.

"Thank you for the tickets, Harry. I'm so excited."

"Is that your dad you brought along?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I took your advice and told him about being a witch. He was surprised, but quite upset that I thought I had to hide it from him. I decided I wanted him to come to the game, and then I am staying with him in Washington until January first."

"Well that's good. You should hold on tight, enjoy every moment you have with family."

At this point, the man had caught up with his Daughter. "Dad, this is Harry, Hermione, Sophie and Tonks. Guys, this is my Dad Charlie."

After another round of introductions, the group decended into Harry's trunk one at a time, until they were all in the entry hall. After allowing sufficient time to 'ooh' and 'ah' over the magic of his enlarged trunk, he spoke.

"I need to key everyone in to the security here, so one at a time please place your hand on the door next to mine." Harry placed his own on the door, and one by one he willed the wards to accept the magical signatures of everyone by thinking the word 'resident' followed by the name of the person who's hand was on the door with his. He then showed them around the trunk, which was truly amazing to the people who didn't know much about magic.

"Unfortunately, I only have three available bedrooms. If the four girls share, then someone still has to sleep in the living room."

"That would be me." Charlie said. "I sleep on the couch at home often enough, I'm quite familiar with it."

Ted and Andromeda Tonks, as the only ones who were old enough to use magic freely, transfigured three extra beds for the room the four girls would be sharing. Harry led everyone down the hall to where the bedroom doors were.

He placed his hand on the door of the room the girls were staying in, and repeated the ward keying process with each of them, as he had with the entry door to the flat. He then did the same for each of the other bedrooms, with the people who would be staying in them. He showed everyone how each room had a set of runes near the door that when touched would cause the door to turn see through, like a one way mirror, allowing the people in the room to see out but not let anyone see into the room. He provided a powering crystal for each room where a non-magical was staying.

"Remember, only the people keyed into the rooms can enter them, without the door being opened by someone else."

Of course, Harry was keyed into every room in the flat, as was Hedwig, but he didn't feel it necessary to mention that; He wasn't planning to barge into someone else's room unless it was an emergency. He also had master control over every ward in the trunk from the panel in the study that was attached to his bedroom.

The group spent the rest of the evening socializing, the non-magical parents sharing stories of their introductions to the magical world, and to their daughters displeasure, sharing the most embarrassing stories of accidental magic.

"Bella's mother told me one story, about the first time she watched Barney the dinosaur." Charlie said. "She spent a week with purple hair, matching that children's show character."

"Our Hermione was a fan of 'My Little Pony'." Emma said. "One time we were at the shops, and said no to getting the toy horse she wanted, then after we got home, the kitchen table started walking about and braying like a horse."

Hermione was covering her face, while the adults laughed. Harry grinned at Sophie, being the only ones who didn't have parents there to embarrass them.

"Nymphadora loved clowns when she was a little girl, she insisted we take her to the circus whenever it was in london." Andromeda said, trying not to laugh through her story. "One day she saw me putting on my makeup and wanted to be like her mum. This was how we first found out she was a metamorphmagus. Unfortunately, the only real knowledge she had about makup was all the clowns, so she turned her face white with big red lips and green circles around her eyes. She then refused to change back, insisting she was a big girl."

The group enjoyed the company and one by one wandered off to sleep, looking forward to the game in the morning. Harry himself was up in the morning long before anyone else was awake, and retreated to the cityscape room for his daily exercise, the door sealed so there was no risk of anyone seeing a shape-shifting Harry and Hedwig. After the exercise and a soothing and naughty soak in the hot-tub in the master bath, Harry moved about the kitchen, cooking up a large breakfast along with a pot of coffee and one of tea. The smell of food woke Charlie from his place on the couch, where he happily accepted a steaming mug of coffee, saying 'I'm American. We don't know what tea is.' His hair was suitably ruffled for a man just having woken, and Hedwig hopped onto his shoulder, to the man's surprise, where she started picking at it, attempting to organize it one small bit at a time. It was one of her ways of showing affection. She had told Harry the night before that she was quite impressed by the way he had taken to his daughters new world and shown his total support.

"What's she doing?" Charlie asked, trying to see what the owl was doing on top of his own head.

"She likes you." Harry said. "She's styling your hair. She only does that to people she likes."

"Oh, well... okay then?" He seemed unsure about styles by owl, but decided to just go with it. The owl soon gave it up as an unwinable battle, and flapped away to land back on Harry's shoulder. She started in on his hair instead, even though he used his metamorphic power to keep his hair styled. He scratched her neck making her emit a soft purring noise.

Everyone eventually dragged themselves out of bed to join Charlie and Harry for a large breakfast. After eating, they spent some time wandering around the camp, looking at all the unique things there were to see in the magical world. They saw unusual tents and even more unusual people, before eleven o'clock rolled around, and the group moved to the far end of the camp site, where there were six archways, each leading to a stairwell that went both up and down to the viewing seats. The stadium itself went down three stories, and the roof was ten stories up. The highest seats were only six levels up, which left the extra room as open overhead for the players to fly.

The attendant at the archway they approached looked at their tickets. "Great seats." He said. "Straight to the top, six levels up, you're in box three."

The climb following his directions was slow for the adults who were more out of shape then the children who climbed the stairs at Hogwarts all year, but they were soon at the top. They exited the stairwell into a long hallway that expanded in both directions with access to all six stairwells along it. They passed box one and two, box three being theirs. It was not overly large, but had enough seats for everyone. The view was amazing, only made better by the omnioculars that were included with each seat. They got their first view of the playing field, it's green turf stretching in both directions. Box three was just off centre field, and they were almost eye level with the scoring hoops.

"This is going to be good." Tonks said.

"Welcome witches and wizards of all ages, this match is the decider for the eastern division championships. On one side of the pitch, we have the New York Knights!"

As one cohesive unit seven broom mounted players dressed in dark blue swept into the air, circling the pitch, a sea of people screaming out as they flew past. The announcer called the players names as they flew past. "Presenting Keeper Michael Williams! Beater Christopher Scott! Beater Emily Wrightman! Chaser Tucker Smith! Chaser Chelsea Harroff! Chaser Tony Hoffman! And the Captain and Seeker William Turner!

"Against the Washington Eagles!" At the other end of the pitch, seven more players took to the air, these dressed in red white and blue. The other half of the crowd roared as they flew by.

"Presenting Captain and Keeper Tobery Jackson! Beater Robert Tobard! Beater Anthony Jokoby! Chaser Anita Blake! Chaser Clint Barnes! Chaser Tanya White! And Seeker Alex Robbins!

Almost directly across from where Harry and his friends were sitting, an advertisement mural on the wall disappeared, and now had the words:

New York: 0

Washington: 0

"We are honoured today, to have guest referee Blake Robinson, who some of you might know is the acclaimed Chairwizard of the A.Q.A, the American Quidditch Association."

Harry picked up his pair of omnioculars and watched as a skinny man walked out on to the pitch. He had short greying hair, that was once brown, and a clipped goatee. He was carrying a broom in one hand, a wooden crate under his other arm. The man set the crate down, mounted his broom, then kicked open the crate. The snitch took off like a seeker was already on it's trail, followed quickly by the two bludgers. He tossed the quaffle into the air, and took off himself, dodging around the players, who dove upon the quaffle and each other like sharks in bloody water.

The play was fierce and violent, making the school quidditch games look peaceful by comparison. The action was so fast, the quaffle changing hands so quickly, the announcer could barely keep up, not even having time to say more then the name of who had the quaffle when he started the word.

"Barnes! Blake! Barnes! White! Turner! Smith! Harroff! Hoffman! Blake! Barnes! Smith! Jackson! Barnes! White! Barnes! Blake! Blake scores! Ten zero to Washington!"

Harry watched as the two seekers fought relentlessly, despite not being anywhere near the snitch. They ploughed each other into the ground, the stands, the goal hoops, even other players, whatever it took to slow the other down. He was rather surprised they were still able to hold onto their brooms, for all the damage they must have been taking.

The game continued, points being scored quickly by both teams, though it was just a matter of time until the violent play took a victim. New York's Chaser Tucker Smith was in possession of the quaffle, and charging in on Washington's goal hoops, when the Keeper Tobery Jackson attempted to body check him to prevent his attempt on the goal. The two collided, but Jackson's block wasn't enough to stop Smith's momentum, and the two careened into one of the goal hoops, crashing violently, then plummeting to the turf below, where their unconscious bodies had to be levitated off of the pitch by the field medics, and replacement players called in.

The alternates were called in, and the game continued, just as fiercely as ever.

One hundred fifty seven minutes later Alex Robbins dived towards the pitch, his arm outstretched, while being chased by Seeker William Turner. Turner put up a valiant fight, but it wasn't enough. The snitch was soon struggling in Robbins grip, and the game was over. Washington had won the division and were on their way to winning the league.

"That was amazing!" Bella declared. "The games at Hogwarts don't quite compare."

"I didn't expect the professional game to be so violent." Hermione said.

"They weren't intentional fouling," Harry pointed out. "just the play is so much faster that it causes more physical contact."

Sophie didn't say anything, not really caring about the game. She was just happy to be included and have friends. Harry of course guessed this was how she felt. He refused to use his legilimency to read his friends mind, but after so many years of using it, he'd gained a sort of inherent sense of how people's minds worked.

"How about you, Sophie?" He asked. "Are you having a good time?"

She smiled shyly at him. "Yes, I am."

"Good." Harry replied. "I'm glad you're here with us."

The group returned to their camp, passing near the Washington teams fan's camping area, which was of course swamped by a party going full steam. The grassy paths between individual camps were littered with people cheering, drinking, and generally loudly celebrating their teams victory.

"Looks like there having fun." Dan chuckled as they past by.

"Their team won." Charlie commented. "After a game like that, I feel like I could go for a beer myself."

"It was pretty intense."

Charlie looked sad for a moment. "Football will never look quite as exciting again."

"It's okay, Mister Swan." Harry interjected. "There are plenty of Quidditch games around. I'm sure they'd love to have you as a fan. And maybe you can come to Hogwarts next year to watch your daughter when I force her to try out for the house team."

Charlie laughed at that. "Good luck, kiddo. She's never been much for sports."

"I don't know," He just smiled mysteriously in return. "I think she has it in her to surprise you."

Bella smiled at the show of faith. She liked having friends.

The group stayed together one more day, the parents allowing their children time with their friends, so it was Sunday afternoon when they left the camp sight, returning to the warehouse they started out in. There was a group of security guards that were directing people to a series of 'authorized personnel only' and 'electrical' rooms which were the stadiums designated portkey and apparition points. After many hugs and 'don't forget to mirror call me's', the families went their separate ways, Bella and Charlie returning to Washington state, The Tonks's returned to London, and Sophie returned with the Grangers and Harry, where she would be picked up by her mother that night. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group of friends, Sophie spent the rest of the holiday telling her parents how much fun she had with them. Despite her shy attitude in public, she was very happy to have them in her life, and was quite devoted to being a good friend in return.

The group of friends met up at platform nine and three quarters on Sunday, January Fifth. Harry, Hermione, and Sophie watched, laughing, as Tonks tumbled out of the fireplace, ending up falling on her rear. That laughter resumed a few minutes later as Bella came crashing out of the fireplace as well, this time ending up face down.

"I hate floo travel." She muttered as Harry helped her stand. He wished he could tell her how to prevent falling on her way out, but knowing Bella, it was just as much her lack of balance, as technique. A few minutes later Neville stepped out of the fireplace, followed by his grandmother, as prim and proper as ever. Seeing his friend come out of network as easy he did, he found the answer to his problem.

"See." He said. "Now Neville knows how to not fall on his face. Maybe you should teach Bella how to ride the Floo network."

The group found an empty compartment at the back of the train while Neville explained how to start moving your feet like you are walking, so you will already be in motion when you exit. Once seated, Neville turned to Harry.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come to the quidditch game with you guys. My gran didn't want me going all the way to America on my own, and wouldn't go to a quidditch game if you paid her."

"It's aright, mate." Harry said. "I'm just sorry we missed you. It was a lot of fun. Maybe you can come along next time."

"I really hope so." The boy replied.

"Maybe we can all get together during the summer." Hermione interjected.

"Ugh..." Bella groaned. "That means I'll have to floo over from the states again."

Tonks hung out with the first year group for a bit, before leaving to see her fellow seventh years. Moments after she was gone, they were interrupted by a visit from Draco Malfoy. His father had not been happy that he had been shown up. He insisted that as Malfoys, they were better then everyone else, and punished Draco for not showing it.

"You know," Harry muttered to his friends, "It's almost like he was waiting for the seventh year to leave."

"Hello, scar-head. I see you still haven't taken my advice, hanging out with the wrong sort."

Harry rolled his eyes at the boys pandering. "Seeing as you are the wrong sort, You aren't really one to talk."

"What? I'm a Malfoy!"

"No, Draco." Harry said. "Your father is a Malfoy. You have yet to make a name for yourself."

"Well then I'll make my name by beating you."

"Yeah." Harry laughed. "That... is never going to happen."

"Oh yeah?" He smiled as if having tricked Harry into some devious plan. "Then prove it with a wizard's duel tonight. Wand's only. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizards duel before, I suppose?"

"Fine." Harry sighed at being forced into fighting a child. "Who's your second?"

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up. "Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

"Fine." Harry said, his Legilimency telling him what the boys plans really were. He pushed a bit of magic into his words forming a magically binding challenge, and offered his hand. "I accept your challenge, Draco Malfoy. A Wizards Duel, tonight at midnight in the trophy room. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Sneered Draco, accepting Harry's offered hand shake, and unknowingly binding himself to the contract.

After the ponce-boy left, Harry's friends turned to him. Having witnessed the events of their first flying lesson, they all had faith that he could win, but still Hermione felt the need to speak up. "You're not really going to fight him, are you? You'll get in so much trouble."

"Of course not." Harry said, rolling his eyes. "It's obviously a trick. He'll probably not show up, then send Snape or someone to catch me out after curfew."

Hermione was quite relieved that Harry had thought and not just reacted. They laughed at how obvious the blonde-haired boy was, and enjoyed the rest of the trip back to school.

They stopped to pet the Thestral, before riding the carriage up to the castle. As they moved into the great hall, they passed Draco, who grinned evilly at Harry.

"Don't forget, Scar-head. Midnight."

"Yeah, yeah." Harry sighed. "I'll see you there."


	12. Year 01 Chapter 12 Forgotten Plot Points

Chapter 12

"You sure you don't want me to go with you?" Hedwig asked.

"No, it'll be fine." Harry answered. "I just have to go down there, avoid whatever teacher he tried to sic on me, claim the forfeiture when he doesn't show up, then come back. Easy peasy. I'll be back in a few."

He began to move toward the curtain surrounding his bed, but moments before he reached it he wandlessly cast a spell he had learned from a Native American Shaman years before, causing the air around him to ripple. Instantly, human Harry was gone. In his place a small black tabby cat with bright green eyes, jumped down from the bed to the floor. He moved out of the dorm room through the small approach meant for familiars to have access to the castle. Cat Harry quickly moved down the stairs, then through and out of Gryffindor tower.

Harry had always wanted to be able to turn into animals. The idea of becoming an Animagus appealed to him, but he lacked that ability. Historically, Magical people could either become an animagus or be a metamorphmagus, but never both. Admittedly, Harry was not just a metamorphmagus, but was close enough to one, not to be able to become an animagus. With his advanced Shape-shifting and total control over every aspect of his body, he could, in theory, change his shape into that of an animal, but that required knowledge of how to change every single bit of bone and muscle to that of whatever animal he was trying to become. Not even Harry's well trained mind could process that much information. Hedwig being able to become human was a fluke of her familiar bond with a shape-shifter. Other wise, she was only able to shape-shift into other birds. He had given it up as a lost cause.

Until he met Samuel Light-feather, a Shaman on a Reservation in Nevada. He taught Harry and Hedwig a shape-shifting spell that was part of their nature-based magic.

It was with that spell, that cat Harry was able to slink silently down the staircases to the first floor. The trophy room stood dark and empty, awaiting two first year students to host a duel. Harry disappeared into the shadows, awaiting whoever was going to show up.

He heard the voice before he saw the man, but knew instantly who Malfoy had sent his way. "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

Filch came into the room following his monster cat. Harry had to think quickly. The man wouldn't notice him in the dark, but Mrs. Norris would smell another cat.

Yeah, that's right you little bugger, try and find me.

"They're in here somewhere," Harry heard him mutter, "probably hiding."

He moved behind one of the nearby trophy cases and, coiling his legs, allowed the cat's mind to take over the body, pushing it to jump up. The glass case was about waist high on the man entering the room, but that made Harry more easily noticed. He leapt from the case he was on to the one next to it, this one a bit higher, then moved quickly hoping from one to the next until he was in the corner of the room, looking down upon Filch's balding head. The man slunk through the room, searching for a student out of bed, before moving on to search the nearby hallways. Once he was gone, Harry silently dropped to the floor and waited another minute to make sure Filch was out of hearing range.

With a ripple of air, Harry was once again his eleven year old human form. He held up his hand and used the spell 'tempus' to check the time, before whispering. "I, Harry James Potter, do at this time accept forfeiture of a wizards duel by Draco Malfoy. So mote it be."

He could feel a slight pressure build up before releasing within him, as the contract completed. There was one more part to the completion of the contract, Harry's payment, and once requested, Draco's magic will push for him to acquiesce. Even though Harry initiated the magical contract, he did so to bind them both to an agreement of a challenge. The challenge itself was issued by Draco, who then unknowingly bound himself to the agreement. He issued the challenge and agreed to it's parameters with the intention of breaking the agreement. Had he changed his mind and shown up after all, he would have been fine, but knowingly making an agreement, whether or not he knew it was magically binding, with the intention of breaking it, and then following through with that intention signified a broken contract. Had he intended to follow through with the duel, then missed for a reason out of his control, the penalty would have been less sever depending on the circumstances, they could be as low as requiring the two people bound in the contract to complete the duel at a later time.

After accepting Draco's forfeiture, Harry eased the door open, which Filch had closed. Moments later, a small black bat with green eyes flew silently through the castle in the direction of Gryffindor tower. When it got close the bat dove toward the pet door near the ground, landing on four paws, once again a small black cat. The cat ran through the common room and up to the first year boys dormitory, through the door he had left ajar earlier that night. He leapt onto the bed, canceling the animal form spell.

"How did it go?" Hedwig asked.

"Fine, just as expected." Harry answered. "Filch was the one who showed up. Had to dodge his mangy cat."

Hedwig chuckled. "I can't wait to see Malfoy's face in the morning."

Harry and his friends were in the Great Hall for breakfast, sitting at the Hufflepuff table when Malfoy entered, looking expecially smug. He grinned big when he saw Harry and his friends weren't at the Gryffindor table. Thinking he got the best of them, he spoke to his two lackeys.

"I didn't think I would get rid of the whole group. Good riddance."

"Get rid of who?" Harry asked from behind the blonde-haired boy.

Malfoy spun around, shocked at seeing him still in the school.

"Oh!" Harry said. "Getting rid of me. No, you forget, I told you that you would never get the better of me. Speaking of..." He cleared his throat. "Draco Malfoy, I claim the right of forfeiture on a wizards duel."

"What?" Draco asked confused.

"Oh, you didn't know," Harry faked realization. "I see. Okay, here's what happened. You challenged me to a duel. I accepted, we even shook on it, forming a magically binding contract." At this, Draco paled, which was surprising, given how pale he normally was.

"Then I showed up, you didn't. So I claimed the Right of Forfeiture. Which means I get to ask whatever I want. Too bad you aren't the head of your house, or I'd get the joy of claiming your lordship and name. Sadly, you aren't so I think... I'll take your wand."

"What?" Malfoy shouted. "You aren't taking my wa-" He was cut off mid-word as his face scrunched in pain.

"In case you didn't know, Draco," Harry commented, "That pain is your magic pushing you to comply. It'll keep getting worse until you do. You know... or you die."

At this point Snape and McGonagall had approached them, just in time to hear the end of his explanation. "Threatening a student, Potter. That'll be twenty points from Gryffindor."

When nothing happened to the point counters, Snape remembered that he still couldn't punish his favorite target.

"Oh not to worry, professor, I wasn't threatening him. It's just fact. He broke a magically binding contract and is now refusing the penalty. You know as well as I do, that if he doesn't comply, it will eventually kill him. Hence, not a threat."

"What is he talking about, Mister Malfoy?" McGonagall asked.

"He challenged me to a wizards duel, then didn't show up." Harry explained again. "Hence, I claimed right of forfeiture, and I am claiming his wand."

"I'm not giving Potter m-" He grabbed his chest, his face scrunching tighter then before.

"Got out even less words this time, Draco." Harry noted. "I wouldn't want to see what happens when the pain comes before you speak."

"Give him your wand, Draco." Snape ordered. "It's what you get for agreeing to a challenge without knowing what you were doing."

"What do you want with a wand that's not suited to you anyway, Mister Potter?" McGonagall asked.

"Oh, this isn't about the wand." Harry answered. "Draco acts like he's better then anyone else. I just wanted to see his face when he realizes that he has to tell his father he got beat by me again."

Draco's eyes went wide and he looked almost sick. Harry leaned closer to him, whispering so the teachers couldn't hear. "If you want to play with the big boys, Draco, be prepared to get beat."

Draco pulled out his wand, threw it at Harry, then stormed out of the Great Hall. Harry chuckled softly. "That was fun."

Later that day, Harry entered the headmasters office, having been pulled out of his transfiguration class. Dumbledore sat behind his desk with a peaceful smile on his face looking like the grandfatherly man he pretended to be in front of his students.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Harry asked.

"Ah, yes Harry, please come in. Lemon drop?" He offered him the bag.

"No thank you sir." Harry said politely. "Forgive me sir, but could we get right to why I'm here? I want to get back to class."

"Of course my boy. I actually brought you here for two reasons. The first of which is about the adjudication request against Professor Snape."

"Ah yes," Harry commented. "I was wondering when they were going to schedule the review. I'm surprised it took this long."

Dumbledore's face took on a hint of avoidance. "Yes, about that-"

"Oh." Harry realized. "Oh ho... You haven't told them yet. That's why they haven't scheduled the review."

"I felt that we needn't bother the board of governors for such a simple matter as a grudge against a teacher."

"What?" Harry demanded. "I'm not the one with the grudge."

"Then you agree to drop the adjudication request?"

"No. No I don't." Harry said. "Snape is-"

"Professor Snape." Dumbledore corrected.

"Snape," Harry insisted. "Is the one with the grudge. It's petty and childish, and it hasn't let up slightly since this all started. Heck, if anything he's gotten worse. Until he learns that I'm not James Potter, the adjudication will stay in place, whether you alert the board to set the hearing date and get this over with is your decision, Headmaster."

"Surely you see that Professor Snape deserves a second chance, Harry."

"It seems you forgot, Sir. What's that tattoo on his left arm?"

Dumbledore paled at the fact that Harry knew Snape was once a Death Eater.

"He's already on his second chance. You are asking me to give him a third, and that simply isn't going to happen."

Albus sighed, seeing that Harry was not going to be budged. "I see you are not going to change your mind. The other reason I asked you here was so I could request you return Mister Malfoy's wand."

Harry touched the wand which had been resting behind his ear since he first received it. "I'm sorry sir, but him giving me his wand was the penalty for breaking a magical contract."

"And what contract is that?" The professor asked.

Internally, Harry rolled his eyes. He was sure that Dumbledore had already heard this from Snape and McGonagall. He sighed, he was getting tired of explaining this. "On the train, he challenged me to a wizards duel, to which he didn't show up, so I claimed right of forfeiture, and asked for his wand."

"But Mister Malfoy already handed over his wand," The older man pointed out. "The contract is closed, so returning his wand to him shouldn't be a problem."

"Well, yeah I guess." Harry conceded. "but then he wouldn't learn his lesson."

"And what lesson is that?" Dumbledore asked, in his 'talking to naive children' voice. Harry hated that voice.

He sighed. "Oh where to start? There are so many lessons here. How about... Don't run around insulting people? Don't challenge people who are smarter then you? Don't agree to things you don't understand? Oh here's a good one." Harry nearly growled out this last one. "Don't insult my friends."

He took a deep breath, reeling in his temper. "So... no sir, I don't think I will be giving Draco his wand back." He stood from his chair before the Headmasters desk. "Will that be all sir?"

Dumbledore appraised the young man before him, wondering where the boys attitude had come from. "Just one last thing before you go, my boy. Remember that forgiveness is the path to the light."

"Yes sir." Harry held off until his back was to the Headmaster before openly rolling his eyes. He knew where Dumbledore's views on forgiveness had brought the world. He knew that sometimes, there was only one way to deal with people and that with an iron fist. For the first time in a while, he started thinking about what he would have to do to purge the world of the nearsighted and bigoted views of a majority of the purebloods, and it wasn't a pretty picture.

Classes dragged on as usual, Harry mostly practicing sleeping with his eyes open, and helping his friends be successful. Hermione, Bella and Sophie were all doing well, but Neville was stunted. Harry's mage sense could feel the boy's magic move into his wand, but the magic seemed to react badly to whatever the core was. Harry could almost feel the power fizzle out as it moved through the wand. He didn't know how Neville was paired with it, if it was such a bad match. Ollivander was usually quite good at matching people with wands.

Classes aside, Quidditch practice had started to get more extreme. Harry didn't know why, until one day when Wood snapped at the Weasley twins for horsing around.

"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

One of the twins fell off his broom, landing face first in the mud. "Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of it. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too. "It's not _my_ fault," said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

Harry sighed at the idea that someone with such a childish grudge was having free reign around him. Dumbledore always was a bit absentminded, but these latest decisions really made one question his mental health. After the practice, he sat with the other players, in this case to listen as they complained about the potions professor. His friends usually came out to watch his practices, and hung out with the team after, but had taken to avoiding the pitch when it rained.

Harry rolled his eyes at the lack of his friends there. "Traitors." He muttered, laughing a little bit.

He soon returned to the common room, to find his friends warm in front of the crackling fireplace, while he was soaked to the bone. Even Tonks was there, which was unusual, as she wasn't a Gryffindor. Harry considered calling them traitors to their faces for leaving him alone in that weather, but decided he would rather be in front of the fire himself, then being chased by a group of girls trying to smack him for making a bad joke. He sighed when he saw Hedwig sitting on Tonks's shoulder. Even she left him to the rain.

"I have news." Harry said, after having returned from changing into dry clothing. "Oliver just told us, the next Quidditch game is being refereed by Snape."

Hedwig hooted, while the rest of the group showed some variation of shock.

"Why would they allow that, after what happened at your last game?" Hermione asked.

"What happened during the last game?" Tonks inquired.

"Snape cursed Harry's broom during the match." Sophie replied. "He almost fell off."

"What?" Tonks questioned, disbelieving. "I know the guy is a huge git, but to curse a student? I don't know if I buy that."

"He did," Hermione insisted. "He was staring unblinking at Harry while he was on his broom, and muttering non-stop. Harry's broom was thrashing, trying to throw him off, but it stopped when I forced Snape to break eye contact."

"Wow." Tonks stated. She didn't want to believe that a teacher would attack a student, but even though they were much younger then her, these first years were her friends, and she was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"What are you going to do?" Sophie asked.

"Obviously you can't play." Bella noted.

"I have to," Harry contested. "There's no reserve seeker. If I don't then the team can't play. I'll just have to end it quickly, before he can dock us too much."

Later that night, he was stretched out in his trunk with Hedwig wrapped around him. He blindly reached into the box of sweets by his bed he received for Christmas and came out with a chocolate frog. After splitting it with the woman in his arms, he glanced at the card that comes with it, and growled at it.

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

Harry sighed. "Partner. How anyone could claim Dumbledore was Flamel's partner, I will never know. More like Flamel's student."

"I know how that bothers you, honey." Hedwig mumbled, half asleep on Harry's chest. "It's too bad the Flamel's will be gone soon, and will probably never get the chance to complain."

"Like anyone would listen to someone bad-mouthing the great Albus Dumbledore." Harry's voice dripped with sarcasm, as he ran his hand over her head, causing her to purr softly and fall into a deeper sleep.

As the match drew nearer, Harry thought more and more about why Snape was refereeing the game, and came to a conclusion. The day of the match Wood pulled Harry aside, before his patented pep talk.

"Now I don't want to pressure you Potter, but we need an early win, before Snape can favour Hufflepuff too much."

"Maybe, but I think that's what Snape wants."

Oliver looked at him oddly. "What do you mean?"

"He wants us to finish it early, so we can't run up the score and ensure that we win the Quidditch cup."

"I hadn't thought of that." Wood admitted.

"I think we should play for as long as possible, I'll hold off their seeker as long as I can." Harry smirked evilly. "I hope he likes the taste of turf."

Before leaving the locker room, Harry pulled the twins aside. "Do me a favor, yeah? When I signal you, whistle as if getting my attention, and point downward."

"Will do, Harry." One twin said.

"Got something planned, do you?" the other said.

"Something like that." He replied. "You'll just have to wait and see."

The game started and he got to work immediately. The moment Snape blew his whistle, Harry lanced at the Hufflepuff chasers, causing them to scatter. He then began circled the pitch a moment, before swinging around and launching at the opposing seeker, who's name was Cedric Diggory. Cedric swerved to avoid crashing, and as he was distracted, Harry looked at the nearest twin and nodded. The twin gave a moments pause, then whistled drawing the attention of both seekers. He pretended to not notice Cedric looking his way, as he looked at Harry, then looked down pointing toward the ground. Harry looked the direction he was pointing, his eyes going wide, before diving hard, plummeting toward the earth below. Diggory, not wanting to risk loosing the snitch, dove after him, barrelling ahead searching for it himself. Harry swerved side to side a bit, his arm stretching ahead of him, reaching for an imaginary golden ball. At the last second before crashing, he pulled up hard, his feet skimming the grass. Unfortunately, Cedric wasn't so lucky. He was so focused on following his competitors outstretched hand, that he didn't notice how close they were to the ground until it was too late. As he pulled up, his feet caught the ground, throwing him from his broom and leaving him rolling across the grass, falling for a perfect Wronski Feint.

Madam Pomfrey ran out onto the pitch to check on him, as Harry flew up along side her.

"Is he aright?"

She had just begun a medical scan, when the boy before her leapt to his feet, ran to his broom, and was off the ground once more.

"I guess so, Mister Potter. Please do be careful."

"For you, always." He said, before flying up once more. He flew a tight circle around the enemy chasers, interrupting their pass, allowing Katie to catch the Quaffle and score for Gryffindor. Snape blew his whistle, giving Hufflepuff a foul shot, accusing Harry of flying with the intention of crashing, which Harry argued that his broom wouldn't allow him to fly like that, but it made no difference. One of the Hufflepuff chasers took a free shot at the goal rings, which was blocked by Oliver.

After the foul shot he continued circling the pitch, keeping track of the snitch, and Cedric. After the next point for Gryffindor, Harry threw his hands up in the air cheering the score, when his face lit up, and he zoomed ahead at high speed. Cedric gave chase, this time keeping a little more distance between the two. Harry circled around half way down the field, making a wide loop, heading back the opposite direction, letting Cedric get just a little bit closer to him. Just as he was passing above the Gryffindor scoring hoops, he cut sharply downward coming to within a foot of the centre hoop. Cedric, who was not directly on his tail dove down as well, attempting to cut him off, but Harry, expecting this, suddenly pulled up, right into his competitions path, forcing him to swerve to avoid crashing into him, and instead crashing into the hoop they were almost inside of.

Cedric's broom dropped as it's rider was sprawled inside of the hoop, the upper and lower halves of his body hanging on opposite sides of it. Harry knew this was a game, and although wanting to win, didn't want to cause any serious harm to his fellow students, so he raced down to catch Cedric's broom before it hit the ground and brought it back up, where Oliver was splitting his attention between watching the Quaffle moving around the pitch, and making sure Cedric didn't fall to the ground.

"You know, Harry," Wood noted, "Remind me not to make you mad."

Hearing what Oliver said, Cedric looked up at the opposing seeker, only half joking. "What did I ever do to you?"

"It's nothing personal, Cedric." Harry commented. "This is about Snape."

A whistle blow interrupted their quick chat. "Speak of the devil." Harry muttered. Hufflepuff was awarded another free shot after Cedric was able to carefully remount his broom and remove himself from the goal zone. The shot was again blocked by Oliver, though it was a bit closer then the last. At that point, Harry noticed the Snitch hovering right above Snape's head, and decided it was the perfect way to get his message across, and end the game. He lay low on his broom, and shot straight at Snape, who looked amazed at Harry flying at him, before sneering, already looking forward to the punishments he could push the headmaster to give to Potter, after he played up the pains he would claim to have.

Harry pulled the broom up a bit more, and Snape had just a moment to wonder if the brat was actually trying to kill him, as being hit in the face with a wooden pole moving a hundred and fifty miles per hour would definitely do the job, when Harry pulled up more, then rolled himself and the broom upside down, performing a tight barrel roll just over his head.

Snape blew his whistle, simmering at what the boy had just done. Harry pulled his broom up along side the potion master's. "Go ahead, give them a foul. Oh, wait," He held up the snitch, which he had snatched out of the air while hanging upside down above Snape. "The game is over."


	13. Year 01 Chapter 13 They Never Listen

Chapter 13

Harry adjusted the fresh shirt he had just put on, Hedwig perched on his shoulder, while he revelled in the memory of the look on Snape's face. He had taken his time cleaning up after the game, and was now heading back to the castle, when he noticed a cloaked and hooded figure moving along the side of the building, heading toward the forbidden forest. He instantly recognized the hooded figure's prowling walk. Snape, and he clearly didn't want to be seen.

"Hedwig, go." Harry spoke. "I'll be right behind you."

The owl took off, quickly climbing high in the air, so no one would see as her white feathers melted into a dull brown. Harry himself slid backward into the shadows underneath the stadium's stands. Moments later a black raven with green eyes swooped into the sky, flying fast after the hooded man. Gliding silently over the castle he saw Snape enter the forest at a run.

The sharp bird eyes were able follow him through the dense foliage, where there was another man waiting. Harry would recognize that stupid turban anywhere.

"I d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…"

Harry landed on a tree near enough to hear what they were saying, but still far enough for it not to be obvious that a bird was listening to them.

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," said Snape, his voice icy. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all."

Harry leaned forward. Quirrell was mumbling something. Snape interrupted him.

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"B-b-but Severus, I ―"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape, taking a step toward him.

"I-I don't know what you ―"

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

An owl hooted softly near him, and Harry looked up, seeing a small brown Hedwig wink at him. He focused back in time to hear Snape say, "I want to know about your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't ―"

"Very well," Snape cut in. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but Harry could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petrified. The man started talking to himself as he moved back toward the castle. Harry dropped from the tree he was stationed on, and flew back to the Quidditch pitch. A second later, Harry strolled toward the school, a snowy owl perched on his shoulder. After entering the castle, he headed in a direction away from Gryffindor tower.

The smell of sterility that can only be found in places like this, greeted Harry as he entered the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was bustling about straightening bed sheets, and counting potion bottles. He approached the only currently occupied bed.

"How's the patient?"

"I'm alright." Cedric answered. The boy in question was sitting on the edge of his bed, stretching out his abused muscles. "Had a couple of cracked bones, but those were repaired quick enough. Was about to head back to the common room."

"Ah, well in that case, if I can ask this without sounding like I'm trying to rub it in your face, Gryffindor is probably having a party right about now. You should come join us, give me a chance to make up for any pain I've caused you."

Cedric looked at his face for a moment, trying to figure out if his offer was a prank, before deciding he was on the level. "Alright, lead the way."

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked, as her friend entered the common room. Their fellow Gryffindors cheered when they saw him come in, but the noise died down when they saw who was with him.

"I was making a new friend." Harry answered. He approached his group of friends. "Guys, this is Cedric Diggory. Cedric, This is Hermione Granger, Sophie Roper, Neville Longbottom, Bella Swan, and Nym-"

He cut off mid-word by the look he was receiving from the pink haired girl. "Tonks." He corrected. "Just Tonks, only Tonks, and anyone who says otherwise is lying."

Cedric laughed at Harry's words. "Yes, her I know. Fellow Hufflepuff."

"How are you, feeling, Ced?" Tonks asked. "A couple of bad crashes you took up there."

"Oh, I'm alright." He grinned. "Madam Pomfrey is a miracle worker, had me all patched up in no time."

The party in Gryffindor tower went late into the night, until Professor McGonagall came to break it up. She seemed surprised, but not displeased to see two Hufflepuffs in attendance.

As the weeks continued racing past, the group of six became seven, and often more, as Cedric brought some of his friends along when hanging out with Harry and the rest. As exams got closer, Hermione commandeered the combined Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw homework group that Harry had started at the beginning of the year, insisting they begin studying for finals.

"You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year?" She said, an edge of panic entering her voice. "They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me."

"Hermione," Harry spoke softy, trying to calm the girl. "The exams are still ten weeks away yet. We have plenty of time. Everything will be fine."

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

Harry snorted at that comment. "What?"

"After we found out about the stone, I... did some research." Hermione mumbled, to which Harry was not really surprised. "Neville was right about the Elixir of Life. Nicolas Flamel and his wife Perenelle are over six hundred and fifty years old."

"I don't know." Harry said. "I don't think being old makes time move faster, especially if you are that old. I would think that, having watched everyone you knew grow old and die over and over, if anything, that would teach you to appreciate every moment you have, not rush through them. Anyway, back on topic, we're you're friends, we will help you study. We have plenty of time, you can't expect to cram everything in at one shot. Just take a deep breath, and trust in your own intelligence."

They spent the next few days focusing on one subject at a time, Hermione's friends working hard to prevent her from burning herself out. Tonks and Cedric mostly spent there time studying with their year-mates.

About a week after their initial decision to begin their exam prep, the five first years were in the library when they ran into what was probably the one person they never expected to see in that part of the castle.

"Hello, Hagrid." Hermione said. "What are you doing here?"

The large man quickly hid something behind his back, shuffling nervously at being caught with whatever he was hiding. His moleskin clothing looked rather out of place in the library, meant more for a forest.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Not worrying about the... the you-know-what, protected by the you-know-who, are ya?"

"No," Hermione answered. "We figured out all about the sorcerer's stone weeks ago."

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?" He sighed deeply. "Listen ― come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh."

"Sorry, Hagrid." Hermione blushed. "We don't want to get you in trouble."

"Is aright," He smiled down at the friendliest lot of students he'd seen in years. "Just watch what yeh sayin in public. I'll see you lot tonigh'" With that, he shuffled off, still trying to keep what was in his hands out of sight.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione wondered thoughtfully.

"It was a book." Harry said.

"I saw him over here when I went to get that charms reference." Bella commented, leading them to an aisle with a specific topic.

"I wonder what he wants with books about dragons." Sophie quipped.

"I don't know." Harry replied. "but there's one way to find out." He grabbed a couple of books off the shelf, and headed back to the table. He already knew quite a bit about dragons, but had to fake ignorance, or risk blowing his cover. He flipped through the books for a few hours while his friends quizzed each other on class material that may end up on the exams. Eventually he looked up, having skimmed enough to fake a passing knowledge.

"Maybe he just has an interest in the subject." Harry said. His friends looked at him, confused at his apparent nonsequetor. "Hagrid." He pointed at the dragon books lying on the desk in front of him. "I was just thinking that he's only interested in dragons. It's not like he can own one, after all. That's been illegal for nearly three hundred years."

"I guess we'll find out tonight." Bella noted.

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.

Despite how warm it was getting outside, Hagrid's fireplace was going full bore, the flames licking around an item sitting in the fire.

"Hagrid ― what's _that_?" Harry asked.

But he already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire was a huge black egg.

"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's ― er…"

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is." Hermione grumbled.

"Is that a dragon egg?" Sophie inquired, wiping the sweat from her forhead in the stifling heat.

"Where did you get it?" Bella asked.

"Won it," said Hagrid. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione questioned.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library ― _Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit_ ― it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here ― how ter recognize diff'rent eggs ― what I got there's a Norwegian Ridge-back. They're rare, them."

He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.

"Hagrid, you live in a _wooden house._"

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

They left soon afterwards, happy to escape the blistering heat. They hadn't gotten far, when Hermione stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, their other friends looking at her, inquiringly.

"We got so distracted by the egg, we forgot to ask about the stone."

"I don't see why you care." Harry implored. He knew that whether someone stole the stone or not didn't matter, as the one in the third-floor corridor wasn't even real, and was therefore not actually under threat. He wanted to prevent his friends from wandering into a dangerous situation, but knew that once Hermione's mind was set on an action, nothing would stop her. That didn't mean he wasn't going to try. "We're students. I'd like to think that Professor Dumbledore knows what he's doing. We should focus on preparing for our exams."

"But Professor Dumbledore trusts Snape." Hermione explained. "He doesn't know that he's trying to steal it."

"Maybe we should tell him." Sophie spoke up, quietly.

"That's a great idea!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Don't look at me." Harry said. "After the adjudication, and duel forfeit, he and I aren't really on the best terms."

"Maybe we should tell someone who can let him know. Do you think that Professor McGonagall knows about all this? We can tell her." Bella interjected.

"I don't know who knows." Hermione replied. "We may have to go to the headmaster directly. Hedwig." She looked at the owl, who sat in her usual place upon her wizard's shoulder. "Can you take a message to Professor Dumbledore?"

Hedwig hooted and nodded at the girl. The group headed up to the tower, where Hermione penned a letter requesting a meeting with the headmaster. The owl was off and the humans lounged about, Hermione and Sophie reading, while Harry, Neville, and Bella played a few rounds of exploding snap.

Hedwig was soon back, with a note asking the group to adjourn to the headmasters office. They headed off for the gargoyle, using the password given to them in the letter.

"Ah Mister Potter, Miss Granger, Miss Roper, Miss Swan, Mister Longbottom." Dumbledore said, his fake grandfatherly smile in place. "Please, do come in. Had I known there would be so many of you, I would have conjured more chairs."

He waved his wand, transfiguring the two chairs into love seats. Given that there still were only four seats, Harry stood beside one, leaning on the arm, while the rest sat.

"So what can I do for you this fine evening?"

Everyone looked at Harry, who held up his hands. "This is your show, 'Mione."

"Aright, well um..." Being in the spotlight was new for her. She took a deep breath, and attempted to calm her nerves. "We have come to the belief that Snape is-"

"Professor Snape, Miss Granger." The headmaster corrected.

"Yes, I'm sorry." She said. "Professor Snape. We believe that Professor Snape is trying to steal the stone on the third-floor."

Anyone who knew Dumbledore well, would have seen the signs of a man struck momentarily speechless, but he hid it well to the untrained eye.

"And what makes you think that?"

"Well... on Halloween we saw Professor Snape injured from trying to get past Fluffy, and then overheard him shaking down Professor Quirrell, trying to find out how to get past it."

Dumbledore stopped to think for a moment, lightly stroking his beard, before returning his attention to the students. "I'm must admit, I am quite intrigued by how you know about fluffy."

"Hagrid told us about his pet." Harry interjected, trying to do so delicately, as to not get their friend in trouble. "I was quite fascinated by it. Imagine my surprise when we later found out that's what is protecting the third-floor hallway."

"Yes, well, Hagrid does love to talk about his pets." Dumbledore agreed. "However, although I do thank you for your coming to me with your concerns, you need not worry. Professor Snape has my complete confidence. The stone is quite protected. Now, it is getting quite late. I think you all should return to your rooms, and rest up for classes tomorrow."

The teens were out the headmasters office, and back in Gryffindor tower in no time at all. Harry looked at his friends. "Well... that was less than helpful."

"He just brushed us off." Bella observed.

"If he won't listen to us," Hermione commented, "then I guess we'll have to protect the stone ourselves."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Neville asked.

"I don't really understand." Harry pointed out. "If Dumbledore won't listen to us, then it kinda serves him right to get it stolen."

"But it's not about Dumbledore." Sophie whispered.

"Exactly." Hermione agreed, pointing at her shy friend. "This is about Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel. They need the elixer of life to stay alive. If the stone gets stolen, then they'll die."

Harry knew there was no way he could tell his friends the truth about the fake stone, and if he didn't agree, it would make him look cold and uncaring. "Aright." He sighed internally. "We protect the stone."


	14. Year 01 Chapter 14 Into The Forest

Chapter 14

The sun rose on February fourteenth, long after Harry made his way around the castle, using his status to bypass the alarms and door locks to access both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff females dorms. He was looking forward to seeing his friends when they got up.

Hermione, Bella, Sophie and Tonks all awoke to a beautiful scent filling their separate dorms. One by one, upon opening their eyes, they each saw the bouquet of yellow roses by their beds, the cards all reading the same. 'A happy Valentines day to one of our dearest friends.' Each signed 'Harry and Neville.'

Neville was rather shocked at receiving a series of hugs from all of his female friends when he arrived at the bottom of the stairs from the dorm.

"Thank you for the flowers, boys." Bella said. Neville was utterly confused by what was going on.

"I've never gotten a valentines day gift before." Sophie stammered.

"Neither have I." Hermione commiserated. Neville noticed that each girl was wearing a yellow rose pinned to the front of their robes. He held Harry back as the rest headed for the portrait hole to get to breakfast.

"What am I missing?" He queried.

"It's valentines day." Harry observed. "All the girls in our group got yellow roses from the both of us."

Neville blushed almost as deeply as he did when the girls hugged him a few minutes before.

"Don't worry." Harry instructed. "Yellow roses, signify friendship."

"Oh, well..." He seemed at a loss for words.

Harry came to his rescue. "Breakfast, yeah?"

"Absolutely." Neville replied, moving out of the common room himself.

The group were soon in the great hall, where they received a hug from Tonks. "Thank you, guys."

The two just smiled at her, Harry knowing that even with the age difference, she still appreciated them showing they cared.

Four days later, the group was digging into breakfast at the Hufflepuff table, when Hedwig landed before Harry. She dropped a letter from her beak, onto the table in front of him, before hopping onto his shoulder.

"It's from Hagrid." He whispered to the others.

"What does it say?" Bella asked.

"It's hatching."

After a bit of discussion, which was interrupted by Draco Malfoy attempting to listen in, they decided to forgo the dragon issue, until the free period after Herbology. Once the bell rung, ending the class, they hurried to the hut at the edge of the forest, where they were welcomed by the expectant papa.

"It's nearly out." He crowed as he ushered them inside.

The black egg sat in a steel bowl on the table, deep cracks running along it, where they could see something moving within. They all gathered around it, sitting in chairs, or leaning on the table itself. Soon, the egg shuddered, and split nearly in half, a small black scaly-skinned creature plopping onto the table.

The dragon was small and thin with wide wings that were much larger then it's body. It had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubby horns, and bulging orange eyes. The creature took a minute to lean how to crawl about the table, before releasing what could have been a sneeze, along with a puff of smoke, and a few orange sparks.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" Hagrid said.

"Hagrid," Hermione questioned, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face ― he leapt to his feet and ran to the

window.

"What's the matter?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains ― it's a kid ― he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking the platinum blonde hair. He rushed out after the boy, telling his friends to stay with Hagrid, and that he would deal with this.

He ran hard for the castle, closing on Malfoy, who he could still see in the distance. The blonde-haired boy was in terrible shape, a result of having had magic do everything for him his whole life. He had to stop shortly to catch his breath. Harry caught up to him quickly.

"What do you want, Scarhead? Come to threaten me not to tell anyone what I saw?"

"No," Harry answered. "I just wanted to say Obliviate."

The Slytherin boy's eyes glazed over, as Harry erased his memory of seeing anything at Hagrid's. He had ample practice using the Oblivate spell, and such precise and refined control, that he could have erased the boy's memories of his own parents, if he had wanted to. The git would never recall seeing anything suspicious, yet would remember having followed them to the hut so as to not leave any blank time periods in his memories.

Harry returned to the hut after watching Malfoy return to his common room. His friends were waiting, looking worried, and checked him for bruises, expecting him to have gotten in a fight with the boy.

"Everything's aright." Harry said. "He won't be telling anyone about the dragon." He refused to say anything more, and wouldn't answer any questions about what he did, leaving his friends to come to their own conclusions.

The group spent every day at Hagrid's trying to come up with a way to deal with the dragon, which was quickly getting bigger. One day, they stumbled upon the answer accidentally.

"Too bad we don't know anyone at one of the dragon preserves." Harry muttered. "We could ask them to take him somewhere with other dragons."

"Norbert." Hagrid corrected.

"Sorry, what?"

"Norbert." Hagrid gestured at the dragon. "I named him Norbert."

"Aright, well, if we knew someone at a dragon preserve, we could have them come get... Norbert."

Tonks' face turned bright red. "I actually know someone at a preserve. Charlie Weasley. He's um..." She trailed off, her friends not hearing the rest of the sentence.

"He's what?" Hermione asked.

"He's this guy I used to have a major crush on. I um... I basically followed him around through my third and fourth year."

"Ok," Harry said, intentionally avoiding mentioning her embarrassing moments. "Can you write to him, see if he can come take... Norbert, somewhere safe?"

"No problem. Hedwig, would you be willing to take a letter to the dragon preserve in Romania?"

The owl in question hopped over to Tonks' shoulder, so she would be there to leave at a moments notice. Hagrid was extremely sad that he was going to loose his dragon, but was happy that it would be going somewhere that it would be cared for. He was scared that Norbert was too young to be on his own, and would starve.

It took Hedwig days to return with a letter from Charlie Weasley. She apparated back to England at night, so Harry would know she hadn't been eaten by a dragon. They didn't like being separated for days at a time. While there, she told Harry how Charlie was extremely excited about the chance to get a new dragon, and was trying to set up a group to come and get it. Finally after nearly a week, she returned with a letter which she delivered to Tonks, before returning to Harry.

The next morning, they found out from the seventh year girl that Charlie had arranged for a group of dragon handlers to pick up Norbert on the top of the Astronomy tower at midnight on Saturday. She also told them that she had thrown the letter into a fireplace to prevent anyone finding out what they were doing.

After classes, Harry went to the kitchens, where it didn't take too much convincing to get one of the many happy-to-please House Elves to give him a few raw steaks. After that, he retreated to his trunks potion room, where he brewed a strong sleeping draught. The steaks were left to soak in the potion overnight, in the runed cooling cabinet in his kitchen.

The next day was Saturday, the day of Operation Dragon Smuggle. After much discussion, they decided that only two could fit under the invisibility cloak with the dragon. They drew lots to see who would go, with Bella and Hermione being the two short lots. Harry decided he would go along disillusioned, as backup, not that either of them would know that.

Harry gave the two potion soaked steaks to Hermione, telling her to feed them to Norbert before trying to move him. When the time came, the two girls wrapped themselves in the cloak, and disappeared. Harry watched as the tracking charm that he had planted on the cloak moved out of the common room. He gave it a few moments, before getting up, and heading after it, himself.

"Where are you going?" Neville asked.

"I decided I can't want around. I'm following them. Consider me the lookout."

Sophie took a deep breath, working up the nerve to speak. "We will go with you."

Harry smiled at the act of bravery. He hugged her tightly, before speaking. "I thank you for that, I truly do, but one student sneaking around at night, I can hide. Three students are more noticeable. I don't care if I get in trouble, but I couldn't stand for anything happening to either of you. Please, stay here. I'll be back soon."

Once out of the common room, he moved along quickly, noting as he relaxed his iron willed control over the nearly instinctual use of his magic. He quickly faded from sight, the disillusionment charm almost placing itself. He followed the tracking charm out of the castle to Hagrid's hut, where the two were standing outside along with a sleeping dragon in a box. He smiled as, after realising how heavy the crate was, Hermione used a levitation charm. They then wrapped the invisibility cloak around the two girls and one dragon, vanishing from sight. Hagrid sobbed loudly as they moved away.

Harry followed them at a distance, up to the tower, where they waited nearly fifteen nerve-racking minutes, before four brooms descended from the sky. The three students watched in amusement as the cheery dragon wranglers wrapped a harness around the still sleeping creature, and quickly flew off into the night.

Once his friends were heading back down the stairs, Harry vanished the now empty crate, before following them. They were all moving at a fair clip, when someone suddenly careened around the approaching corner, running full tilt, as he crashed into the two invisible girls, causing all three to end up sprawled painfully on the stone floor. Luckily the collision didn't make a sound, as before he could even think, Harry silenced the three of them. Ron Weasley dragged himself out of the pile, standing before the two girls. Harry dropped the silencing charms before any of them noticed they couldn't speak.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione questioned.

"Dragon smuggling in the middle of the night? I wanted to be apart of a genuine Harry Potter adventure."

Hermione scowled at the idiot before her, but Bella was the first to speak up. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but Harry isn't even here."

"What do you mean, he's not here? He's the boy-who-lived." Ron demanded. "He has to be here."

"You obviously don't know Harry at all." Hermione pointed out. "Now go away. We're heading back to the dorm."

The two girls moved away from the red-haired boy, who looked like he was pouting before storming off in the opposite direction. Harry moved along behind them, as they pulled on the invisibility cloak, and started heading back. They were almost to the tower, having just past an intersection in the hallways, when Bella tripped, her natural clumsiness taking her down. Harry, who was farther back, had his grin wiped off his face, when he saw Professor McGonagall heading their direction along an adjacent hallway. He quickly lunged forward, the disillusionment charm dropping as he grabbed Bella's arm. She had fallen out from under the cloak, and Harry had again instinctively silenced her as she fell. She squeaked silently, startled at someone grabbing her.

"There's a teacher coming." He whispered to them. "Go! Get under the cloak, and get back. I'll slow them down."

He pulled Bella to her feet, giving her a small push as he dropped the silencing charm, then took off, turning the corner, and skidding to a stop right in front of Professor McGonagall who froze, rather shocked at nearly colliding with a student.

"Oh, it's you, Mister Potter! I was actually expecting two of your friends. What are you doing out after curfew?"

"I'm sorry Professor. It's just..." He faked an innocent face. "This castle is so amazing. How could I not want to look around a bit. Maybe find some ancient hidden secret."

She looked like she was almost going to smile, her voice softening a bit. "I understand, Mister Potter. But for now on, please keep your explorations to the daylight hours. I will still have to give you a detention for being out after curfew."

"Of course Professor. I shouldn't have broken the rules. I will make sure it doesn't happen again."

She watched him for a moment, judging his sincerity, before releasing him to return to the tower.

Once back in the common room, he was swamped by his friends, who were all waiting for him.

"Harry! What happened?" Hemione asked. Bella just hugged him tightly, whispering 'thank you' in his ear.

"It was Professor McGonagall. I got a detention."

His friends all looked quite upset at that statement. "Don't worry," He grinned. "I stand by what I said to Neville and Sophie earlier. I'm okay with it, as long as it's me. I just don't want anything happening to any of you."

As if they had practised it, all of his friend blushed at the same time, honoured by Harry's protectiveness of them.

"Anyway," He continued, "She said something weird. She said that she was expecting two of my friends. I wonder how she knew you two were out and about."

"Ron, maybe." Hermione concluded. "He was running around too. He seemed pretty mad at us. Maybe if she caught him, he told her about us being out."

"Possible. I guess I'll have to ask him nicely tomorrow."

The next day, he cornered the red-haired boy after breakfast, outside of the great hall. "What did you do?"

"Wha- What?" the confused child asked. It was enough, though. Harry skimmed the boys mind, and pulled the information he needed.

"You got detention last night, and in a childish fit, you tried to get my friends in trouble too."

"What?" Ron sputtered. "I didn't-"

"You did," Harry interrupted him. "So don't bother denying it. Now I'm going to have to teach you a lesson about hurting my friends."

"But I should be your friend, not a bunch of girls. I should be the one going with you on all your adventures."

Harry could see in the boy's mind vague imaginings of them fighting monsters together. The images looked somewhat familiar, and Harry started to become suspicious of what he was talking about.

"What adventures?"

"You know," Ron insisted, "Like the time you defeated the Banshee of Brighton, or the time you saved the African princess from the evil wizard Ha'mad." The images of story-book cover art flashed through the boys mind, easily picked up by Harry.

The currently black-haired wizard sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "For Merlin sake, Ron, those are books. Fiction. As in not real!"

"Yes they are!" The boy insisted. "You did all those great things, and-"

"No, Ron, I didn't." Harry interrupted him again. "If you tried to get to know me at all, you would know they were all lies. I didn't spend the first ten years of my life fighting monsters. I most definitely didn't live in a flying castle. I lived with my muggle relatives, who hated magic. I spent my time cooking and cleaning, doing work that most families have house elves for. Next time, try talking to someone, before assuming you know them."

Harry turned, and walked off, heading back to the common room, where he sat with his friends, trying to forget the image of him the boy had.

The next morning, Harry received a note from McGonagall telling him he was to meet Filch in the entry hall that night at 11, to serve his detention.

"My detention is tonight." He told his friends. He noticed Bella looking guiltily at him. "Don't. I told you, this is how it should be. Now stop."

"I just feel so bad," She explained. "It's my fault that you got detention."

"It's really not." Harry replied. "If it's anyone's fault I was out after curfew, it's Hagrid's, and I don't blame him either, now stop fretting. I'm quite okay with it."

The girl sighed, but didn't say anything else. Classes passed quickly, and Harry was soon walking into the entrance hall, where he found Filch waiting for him. He sidled up alongside the ageing caretaker, where they waited nearly another fifteen minutes for Ron, late as always.

After scowling angrily at the red-haired boy, Filch lit the oil lamp he was carrying, and led them out of the castle.

"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them. "Oh yes, hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me. It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out… hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed… Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."

Harry rolled his eyes, sighing at the pointless threats. He knew for a fact that they never allowed students to be strung up by their arms. The man just had a flair for the dramatic.

They moved silently across the lawn toward Hagrid's hut, and heard his voice come out of the night as they approached. "Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started. Abou' time, I bin waitin' fer near an hour already. All right, Harry?"

"You shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," said Filch coldly, "they're here to be punished, after all."

"That's why yer late, is it?" Hagrid asked, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

"I'll be back at dawn," Filch grumbled nastily, "for what's left of them," He turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

"Right then, now, listen carefully," Hagrid ordered, "cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

He led them to the very edge of the forest, his hound Fang following along. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest.

"Look there," Hagrid said, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by sum'mat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"We're going in the forest?" Ron squeaked, his fear making his already high-pitched voice crack.

"Sounds like fun!" Harry said excitedly. "I heard there are werewolves in the forest."

Ron paled nervously, too scared to realise that without the full moon, werewolves were generally harmless. "What if one attacks us?"

Hagrid sighed heavily. "There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang, an' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now ― that's it ― an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' I'll come an' find yeh ― so, be careful ― let's go."

The forest was eerie and dark, the trees blocking what little moonlight was shining that night. As they moved into the forest Harry willed his eyesight to see in the dark, and controlled his hearing so he could hear things moving through the trees but was careful not to let himself be deafened by one of his companions speaking. It didn't take long before they met a fork through the foliage. Hagrid went to the left, after assigning Harry and Ron to take Fang with them on the right path. The two boys moved along through the forest, following the occasional silver-blue splatter on the fallen leaves. Soon, the sound of running water could be heard through the trees. They moved toward what Harry thought was the river, when they heard a different sound, this one more like fabric being dragged along the ground. Harry put up a hand, stopping Ron from moving.

"Something's out there."

Two scared whines came from the dark, and Harry had trouble telling which came from the boy, and which came from the dog. Through the trees they could make out something moving.

"Stay here with Fang." Harry ordered. "I'm going to check it out." He moved through the dark, wandlessly silencing his shoes as he went. He entered the clearing ahead to find a large chestnut coloured horse with the upper body of a human, where it's head and neck should be; A Centaur. Harry approached him, stopping a safe distance away. He bowed his upper body slightly.

"Good Evening to you. My name is Harry Potter."

The Centaur eyed him curiously for a moment before replying. "Good evening to you. I am Ronan. I see you a student up at the school. Do you learn much there?"

"Not enough," Harry answered. "Sadly, nothing about your history or culture. What I know, is self taught."

Ronan sighed, looking up at the stars. "Mars is bright tonight. Unusually bright."

Harry followed his gaze, taking in the night sky. "Mars brings war to the forests, but I fear it will soon move across the sky."

"You read the stars?" The centaur asked, looking surprised.

"I simply observe and try to understand." Ronan seemed pleased by that answer. "Sadly, the stars do not answer my current question. There's something attacking the unicorns here in the forest, and I need to know what it is."

"The forest hides many secrets." The centaur replied.

Harry glanced back in the direction he had come from. He could see Ron watching him from behind a tree, near enough to see him, but far enough away not to hear. A rustling drew his attention back to Ronan, where a second centaur was approaching.

"Is all well, Ronan?" He asked.

"Students from the school. This is Harry Potter."

"Hello, and well met." Harry bowed slightly.

"I am Bane." The second centaur introduced himself.

"I was just asking Ronan here if he had any idea what was attacking the unicorns."

"Mars is bright tonight." Bane replied.

"Mars will be brighter in the nights to come, and from what I have seen it won't be safe for a long time, not even in this calm between storms." Harry answered.

Bane too seemed surprised.

"Harry?" Ron called.

"I'm sorry, friends, that is Ron Weasley, another student." Harry turned to boy. "It's aright, Ron, I'm coming." He turned back to the centaurs. "It seems I am needed. It was a great pleasure meeting you both. Before I go I wondered if I may be welcome here again to speak with you."

"You are welcome to return." Ronan said. "Our herd values the life of the young. But be aware, centaurs are a proud people."

"I am honoured sir." Harry bowed once more. "I respect the wisdom of your people."

He returned to Ron, who seemed glad that Harry was unharmed. "What was that all about?"

"I was just asking them if they knew what was attacking the unicorns."

"And what'd they say?"

"Nothing you'd understand. Centaurs don't generally concern themselves with events that don't effect them directly. More concerned with the big picture. That's why they read the stars."

They began moving along the path again, on the other side of the clearing. They didn't get too far before a rustling drew their attention. Harry looked ahead, his enhanced eyes cutting through the dark. He had only moments to react as the deer lunged out of the trees running past them. Unfortunatly, Ron couldn't see nearly as well as Harry. He could only make out the movement of something coming at them fast, and leapt away from it, tripping over Fang, who yelped loudly as the gangly boy landed on him. Frightened, Ron shot red sparks into the sky.

Harry rounded on him. "What did you do that for?"

"Something was attacking us!" Ron declared.

"No, that was a deer running by. You panicked."

Sudden rustling preceded Hagrid barriling out of the forest. "Wha 'appened? Are you aright?"

"We're fine, Hagrid." Harry answered. "Ron just got spooked, and jumped the gun."

"Well, We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now."

"How about you take Ron and Fang with you, Hagrid. I can move faster thorough the under-brush here on my own."

"Are you sure, Harry?" Hagrid looked worried. "I don't know if I should let you go off by yerself."

"It's aright, Hagrid. I'll be fine. I promise."

Hagrid didn't look overly happy. "Well... If you are sure."

"I am. Take Ron and go that direction." Harry pointed back the way Hagrid had come from. "I'll continue down this path."

He moved ahead, away from the others quickly forging a distance. Hagrid didn't look too happy, but led Ron away. Harry moved until he was sure that no one could see him, before raising one hand in the air and waving. A small black owl landed on the branch of a tree right next to him, and hooted softly. Hedwig had been following Harry along, making sure that he didn't get into trouble, her currently dark feathers making her almost invisible in the night.

"There you are." Harry whispered. "Have you seen anything?" Hedwig hooted in a negative. "Aright, I'm going to move fast."

Harry began to jog when the air around him abruptly rippled, and in his place was a black wolf with green eyes. The wolf plunged forward into the trees letting his nose guide him. His wolf eyes could cut through the night as if it were mid-afternoon, even if the colour was a bit dim, but in comparison to how well his nose worked, he might as well be blind. The forest sang to his sense of smell. Every tree, every blade of grass, every breeze told a story. Harry knew what creatures were nearby, what beings had passed by recently. He could tell that the griffin that had relieved itself on the tree he was passing had too much sugar in it's diet. The forest was alive. And sadly, he could smell the strange combination of metal, power, and sunlight that combined to represent unicorn blood. He followed the scent, which almost made you feel cleaner, cleansed, just by breathing it in, even though it was tinged with the wrongness of having been spilled by force. He moved deeper and deeper into the forest, until finally, he could see in the distance a pure white form lying on the ground, in a small clearing.

It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and so sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.

The brush on the far side of the clearing moved, as a cloaked figure crawled out from under them. The figure quickly moved to the unicorn's body, lowing the hooded head into the bloody wound.

Harry realised with a start that whoever was under the hood was drinking the unicorn's blood. He thought fast, deciding what he wanted to do. He knew to the very bottom of his soul that what the hooded person was doing was wrong, and had to be stopped. Harry silently moved his wolf body back into the trees then regained his human form. He quickly shifted away from his easily-recognizable eleven year old form, to a six foot tall man, with long black hair with blood-red streaks running through it tied back in a pony tail, and a tightly clipped goatee. His face was thinner, with sharper cheek bones, and no visible scars. He transfigured his school robes into a black long-coat with a hood, which he pulled up to cover his face.

Harry silenced his feet, then moved quickly forward, shoving one hand out at the cloaked figure, not bothering to pull out a wand, as he cast a banishing charm, shoving the cloaked figure away from the unicorn that lay between them. The figure was thrown backward, slamming into a tree. It collapsed to the ground, hissing menacingly at it's attacker. It pulled a wand, confirming that it was definitely a human, and waved it in a complicated pattern, firing what Harry recognized as an organ rotting curse. The curse was extremely dark magic, which was appropriate for someone who killed such a pure creature.

Harry wandlessly summon a duellist shield around his left hand, a soft-blue glowing energy a foot wide extending the length of his forearm, which he used to bat the incoming curse away. At the same time he swung his right arm back parallel to his shoulder, mentally incanting 'Telum Glacis' as he did, causing a flurry of snowflakes to swirl around his fingers, collecting into a ball in the palm of his hand. This only took about a second, before he flung the ice ball toward the cloaked individual, which extended quickly into a two foot long conical shaped ice-spear. The ice left his hand in a sharp point getting wider as the tip got farther away, ending with a final diameter of only four inches. It was strong enough to staple a man to a wall if it hit his midsection, and the magic of the spell caused the spear to move a lot faster then he could throw it, as if it were propelled by a banishing charm. The cloaked figure dove aside, the ice spear catching it on the shoulder instead of the centre of it's chest. The force of the impact spun the being around, knocking it to the floor, and Harry was about to follow through with a stunning charm, when the foliage between the two was nosily pushed aside as a centaur dove at the cloaked figure, attempting to trample it. The hooded person leapt to it's feet with a smoothness that made it appear as if it were almost levitating itself to a standing position, before diving away, into the trees. The centaur turned to see an eleven year old boy in school robes watching him.

"Are you aright?" The centaur asked. He had blond hair on his human head, and a palomino horse body. He looked younger then Ronan or Bane.

Harry was frustrated that the horse-man let the cloaked figure get away, but couldn't say anything without blowing his cover. He was rather grateful that the centaur didn't seem to have noticed he was an adult just moments before, probably having been focusing on finding whatever was attacking the unicorns. He decided to play things as if the centaur had just saved him from an attack.

"Yes, I am, thanks to you. You saved me."

"You are the Potter boy," he said. "You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time ― especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way. My name is Firenze."

Harry knew the pride that most centaurs held about themselves and would usually never let themselves be ridden like a horse, but felt there was no way to turn down his offer, without being suspicious.

"Before we go, can you promise me something?" Harry asked. "Please make sure this unicorn gets treated with respect. Make sure it gets a proper burial, or whatever it is you do in the forest."

Firenze looked at Harry, impressed with the respect that he had for the unicorn. "I will, you have my word."

Harry carefully mounted horse-back, and they barely moved when there was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

Harry watched, feeling rather bad for Firenze as Bane accused him of being equal to a 'common' mule, for allowing a human on his back. They argued for a moment and Harry felt it best if he minded his own business. It was obvious that Bane didn't like humans very much. Firenze soon turned and galloped into the forest, his rider holding on tight.

"Thank you for standing up for me." Harry spoke finally.

Firenze nodded, but remained silent for a bit longer, before finally speaking. "Harry Potter, do you know what Unicorn blood is used for?"

"I know it can be used in restorative potions, and bring back someone from the edge of death, but to drink the blood itself is... I don't think wrong is nearly a strong enough word."

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," Firenze replied. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime."

"But who is that desperate? I can't even imagine slaying something so pure to save myself. You would be cursing yourself the moment the blood touched your lips."

"You would," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else ― something that will bring you back to full strength and power ― something that will mean you can never die. Harry Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"

Harry sighed, beginning to wonder how Dumbledore ever thought the stone was a secret, if even the Centaurs in the forest know about it. He assimilated this new information trying to figure out why Snape would need to drink unicorn blood, or who he would be trying to get the elixir of life for, and wasn't liking the ideas he was coming up with.

They moved the rest of the way in silence, until Harry was pulled out of his thoughts by the appearance of Ron and Hagrid. Harry told the grounds keeper an edited truth about finding the unicorn, and Firenze chasing the cloaked figure away. The centaur left them with a 'good luck', after stating a wish for what the stars foretold to be wrong. Harry was soon back in Gryffindor tower, where he and Hedwig retreated to the privacy of their trunk flat. Harry was soon pacing in the living room, while Hedwig lounged on the couch watching him walk.

"Is it possible?" She asked.

"I don't know." Harry replied. "I mean, there are dark magics that could prevent him from dying, but to be dead for... what? Ten years, then to suddenly be back? And at the same time that Harry Potter is here, and the stone. That's a awful lot of coincidences to all be happening at the same time."

Hedwig chuckled slightly. "He's going to be so very angry when he finds out the stone is fake."

"If that were the only problem, I'd let him steal the fake stone." Harry explained. "But there's more to it then that. There's the idea of a possibly not dead dark lord in a school full of children, and the people that I promised to protect deciding it's their personal mission to protect the stone from him."

Hedwig grimaced. "I didn't think of that."

"We both know there's no way I can stop Hermione, so we're just going to have to go along with her plans, and keep them safe."

Hedwig sighed heavily. "This just keeps getting better and better."


	15. 01 Chapter 15 The Great Hogwarts Heist

Chapter 15

Before they knew it, exams were upon them, and Harry was glad that the stress of the tests seemed to distract his friends from worrying about the stone. He was internally torn, as he wanted to keep his friends safe, but knew that they would never forgive themselves if someone stole the stone, leading to the death of the Flamel's. He decided one day after their tests were completed, to carefully bring it up to them. He was sitting with his first year friends, Cedric off somewhere with his older friends, and Tonks in the Hufflepuff dorm, busy studying for her NEWT exams.

"So Hermione," He turned away from the fireplace, to look at the girl, who was sitting on one of the couches. "Have you put any thought into what you are wanting to do about the stone?"

"What can we do?" She asked. "We told Professor Dumbledore about it. As long as he's here, the stone is safe."

Harry didn't know it at that moment, but Hermione's statement was a bad omen. That night, at dinner, Dumbledore was nowhere to be found. He had not missed a dinner that year, and Harry knew that he enjoyed supper time at the school, because it was the only time of the day he consistently had free to spend with the students.

"The headmaster isn't here." Hermione whispered to their friends. As one, their hands snapped towards the head table, where all the seats were filled, except for the golden throne in the centre.

"He never misses dinner." Bella commented.

"We should ask Professor McGonagall where he is, once we can get her alone." Sophie said.

"I'll be right back." Hermione stood and went up to the head table, where she spoke to McGonagall for a moment, before returning. "She'll meet us in her office after dinner."

After they ate, they hurried up to the professor's office where they were soon escorted inside. "What is this emergency that you needed to talk to me about right away?"

Hermione spoke up first. "We hoped to talk Professor Dumbledore, actually, but didn't see him at dinner."

"Professor Dumbledore left an hour ago." She said. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."

"He's gone?" Neville asked. "Now?"

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Mister Longbottom, he has many demands on his time ―"

"But this is important!" Hermione declared.

Harry could see Mcgonagall was starting to get angry. "Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Miss Granger?"

"Actually yes." Harry replied. Inside he couldn't imagine anything Minister Fudge had to say could be all that important. Probably had to ask Dumbledore which colour tie would make him appear less pompous.

Hermione decided to be blunt. "This is about the Philosopher's Stone."

McGonagall looked truly shocked at that statement. "How do you know ― ?" she spluttered.

"Professor." Hermione interrupted. "We know that someone is going to steal it. Professor Dumbledore being gone isn't a coincidence."

"The Headmaster will be back tomorrow," The teacher said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"But Professor ―"

"No, it's aright." Harry interrupted his friend. He knew Minnie McGonagall well enough to recognize when she was digging her heals in. She could be very stubborn when she wanted to, that much hadn't changed with age. "We understand. Thank you for your time."

He led his friends out of the teachers office and down the hall, before any of them spoke.

"What was that about?" Hermione asked.

Sophie spoke up first. "She wouldn't listen to us."

"She's right." Harry said. "She was dead set against listening, anything more would have just gotten us in trouble."

"Well then," Neville spoke up, gathering his nerve. "I guess it's up to us."

"We have to prevent Snape from getting the stone ourselves." Hermione said.

"Does he even know how to get past Fluffy?" Bella asked.

"I've been thing about that." Harry answered. "I think at this point, it's safe to assume that he does."

"What makes you think that?" Neville wondered.

"It seems like an awfully big coincidence that someone just happens to have a dragon egg for Hagrid to win, the very thing he's always wanted. And Professor Dumbledore told me himself, Hagrid likes talking about his pets. I'll bet you that the person who had the egg was Snape."

"Makes sense." Neville admitted.

"We should ask Hagrid." Bella concluded.

"I'll go see him. In the mean time, Everyone go get your communication mirrors. Hermione, take Neville with you, and watch the teacher's lounge, see if you can follow Snape, but do whatever you need to not get caught. Bella, you and Sophie go to the third-floor, and watch the door. Alert us immediately if anyone tries to get in. Curfew is in twenty minutes, and I need to hurry."

He moved quickly down to the entrance hall, pulling on his invisibility cloak as he went, Hedwig hopping onto his head, so she would be under the hood. They moved quickly out of the castle to Hagrid's hut. Once there, Harry shut his eyes and projected his magical sense out, feeling for his friend's mind. He felt guilty about doing this, but he was in a bit of a hurry. Once he touched the man's mind with his own, he slipped through his non-existent defences. The man's mind was completely disorganised, but that actually made it easier to find information. He simply whispered images of Fluffy and the dragon egg into his mind, willing the man's thoughts to tie the two together. The memories were fuzzy from alcohol intake, but Hagrid definitely told the hooded man how to get past Fluffy. Once he found what he needed to know, he quickly pulled away from his friends mind, and whispered softly. "I'm sorry, Hagrid."

On the way back to the castle, his mirror vibrated. He pressed the runic key in the lower corner, dribbling a trickle of magic into it. His own reflection disappeared, and he was looking at an image of Bella.

"What's going on?" Harry asked. "Are you guys aright?"

"We're fine." She answered. "Professor McGonagall found us by the third floor, and chased us away. Threatened us with all sorts of punishments if we went near there again."

"Aright. I got what we needed from Hagrid. I'll be back in the common room in moments."

"Okay." Bella said. "See you there."

Her face faded away from Harry's mirror, leaving only his own reflection. He slipped the mirror back into his pocket, and returned to the tower. He wasn't back long, when Hermione and Neville met them.

"I'm sorry, Harry." She said. "Professor Snape found us outside of the lounge, and made us leave."

Harry sighed. "Aright, so we have no way of knowing when he's going after the stone."

"We can expect he's going after it tonight." Sophie noted.

"Then we need to get there first." Hermione resolved.

"I'm sorry, what?" Harry asked.

"We have to steal the Philosopher's Stone."

An hour after curfew, the five friends sneaked as quietly as possible to the third-floor, where they found the door standing ajar.

"We're too late." Hermione muttered.

"We're never too late." Harry said, snapping into his leadership mode. "Hermione and Neville, find McGonagall, and any other teachers you can. Tell them that someone is trying to steal the stone. Bella and Sophie, go to the owlery, send an owl to Professor Dumbledore, tell him what's going on here."

"What are you going to do?" Hermione asked.

"I'm going after the stone."

"You can't go alone." Bella demanded.

"I said before, I don't want any of you getting hurt." Harry declared. "I'll be fine."

"No, Sophie can send the letter on her own. I'm going with you."

"I'll go too." Neville said.

Harry looked at his friends, seeing that they wouldn't change their minds. "Fine. Here." He passed the invisibility cloak to Sophie. "Don't get caught on your way to the owlery."

She threw the cloak over herself and disappeared. Hermione left to find the teachers, leaving the other three to go into the unknown. Once in the dark room, they found the three-headed dog waiting for them, growling softly. A harp stood in the corner of the room, obviously left by Snape earlier. Harry flicked his wand at it, casting an animation spell to start it playing. The dog snorted, it's many eye lids growing heavy, before stretching out, asleep. The dog was lying on top of the trap door, so Harry used a simple levitation charm to move him aside. Neville pulled open the hatch, and looked down into the darkness below.

"I can't see anything down there."

"Hang on." Harry pointed his wand down into the hole, and whispered a spell. "Lumos Solaris."

A bright light lit up the end of the wand and shot away in the direction it was pointed. They watched as thick green vines writhed below them trying to get away from the light.

"It's devil's snare." Neville said. "It hates light and heat."

"It's a good thing you used that light spell, then." Bella noted.

"Okay, I can't tell how far down the ground is, so I'll lower myself down, then you two drop one at a time, and I'll catch you." Before anyone else could speak, Harry stepped off into the room below, using a levitation charm to lower himself to the ground. Hedwig dove down quickly, landing on his shoulder.

"I'm down." He called up, aiming his wand toward the ceiling. "One of you jump."

"Here I come." Bella called.

Harry saw her falling, and incanted the movement freezing spell, 'Aresto Momentum.' His friend stopped falling and he followed up with another levitation charm, to carefully bring her down. He did the same as Neville dropped, and the three first years and one owl soon found themselves exiting the room through a door, moving one step closer to their goal.

"What do you think is going on here?" Harry wondered.

They had passed through a hallway into a room with one door on the opposite end. The sound of fluttering echoed through the dimly lit room. They moved across it, and tried the door, but it was locked. A simple unlocking charm didn't do anything.

Bella's attention was on the movement they could see through the gloom. "I don't... think those are birds."

Harry followed her line of sight, slightly increasing his ability to see in the dark. "They're keys. Keys with wings."

"There are brooms over there." Neville said, pointing across the room, where three brooms were hovering just above the floor. "This is all you, Harry."

"Forget that." Harry muttered. "I wouldn't trust those brooms not to be jinxed, or cause the keys to attack, or something."

Hedwig hooted softly from Harry's shoulder. "You got it?" He asked. She hooted again. "Then go get it."

With one sharp flap, the owl was airborne. She worked quickly to get to the ceiling. "Let's stay by the door, in-case the keys try to stop us."

Harry watched as Hedwig hovered near the roof for a second, before tucking her wings in, and plummeting down, snatching a key out of the air as she fell, a key with damaged wings. She spread her wings, turning her dive into forward momentum, shooting across the room. Harry held up his hand, snatching the key out of the air as Hedwig flew past, wings now spread to slow her down. With one more flap, she spun and returned to her place on her love's shoulder. He quickly dove at the locked door, jamming in the key, and wrenching it open, in case the keys attacked, allowing the trio to move out into the hallway beyond.

Light exploded in the next chamber as they entered, showing them a large chess board, the blank-faced pieces giving the trio a sense of creepiness.

"Who's good at chess here?" Bella asked.

"You think we have to play our way across?" Neville wondered.

"Seems that way." Harry answered. "But I have an idea." He led them across the board, trying to cross without playing. The white pieces reached their stone arms out, blocking the path between them. Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket. They backed up a bit away from the pieces. "Cover your heads and be ready to run."

He swung his wand up, and started rapid-firing spells. "Expulso! Expulso! Bombarda! Reducto!"

The chain blasting and explosive curses shattered the closest white chess pieces between them and the exit door, stone shrapnel flying everywhere. It took a few more four shot sets to shatter enough pieces for the trio to access the exit. The moment there was a gap in the gap in the white statues, Harry ordered the others to run.

The trio sped through the wreckage that was once the white king and queen, moving quickly for the way out. The rest of the white pieces spun and began to chase them. "Get to the door, I'll hold them off!"

Harry spun, firing more blasting curses, aiming at the legs of the white pieces, causing them to topple heavily to the ground. As the pieces got closer, he heard Bella's voice.

"The door is unlocked! We're through, come on, Harry!"

He fired two more reducto's at a bishop that was getting too close, then spun, running after his friends. Neville slammed the door shut behind Harry as he ran through.

"That was your great idea?" Bella asked, panting from the exertion.

"It worked, didn't it?" Harry himself faked panting as well, as he was in much too good of shape to really be winded.

After catching their breath, they had to hold it to prevent smelling the dead troll in the next room. Once through, Harry spoke up.

"So that was Quirrell's room. The key's were probably Flitwick's, which makes the chess McGonagall's though it really could be either. The Devil's snare was Sprout's."

"What's left?" Neville asked.

The next room they entered gave them the answer.

"Professor Snape."

As soon as they entered, purple flames engulfed the door they had come through, matching the orange flames rippling over the door across the room. In the centre was a table with a line of potions on it. In front of the bottles was a single sheet of parchment with a riddle on it.

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

"It's a logic puzzle." Harry noted. He took the time to work out which bottle was the one to go forward, and which to go back. He picked up a small red bottle that was in the middle of the line. "I need you both to stay here, and wait for the teachers."

"What? No!" Bella insisted. "We promised we'd stick by your side, and we meant it."

"Sadly, that's not an option." Harry said, holding up the potion in his hand. "This is the bottle to move forward. There's only enough for one, and I won't let either of you risk getting hurt in my place."

"Oh." Bella stared at the bottle for a moment. "There's no other way?"

"Doesn't look like it." Harry lied. He could probably have used a flame freezing charm, but that was a spell that an eleven year old shouldn't know yet, even more advanced than anything he'd already used in front of his friends. "You'll have to keep Hedwig here with you. Please watch after her."

"We will, Harry." Neville swore. Hedwig flapped once, and glided over, landing on Neville's shoulder. She gave him a gentle nip on his ear as a sign of thanks.

"Be safe. I'd give you the potion to go back, but I can't be sure the chess pieces won't attack you the moment you get back to the last room."

"We understand." Neville said.

Bella hugged Harry tightly. "Please be careful, Harry."

"I will. I promise you both, I will be fine." With that, he stepped in front of the fiery doorway, his back to his friends, so they wouldn't see him cast the wandless diagnostic charm on the small potion. He didn't want to risk coming all this way, to foolishly drink a bottle of poison, or some other dangerous concoction. His spell identified the bottle as a generic fireproofing potion. He took a deep breath and swallowed the liquid, before charging through the flames. The fireproofing potion made him feel like ice was running through his blood, the momentary chill preventing him from even feeling the heat of the fire. He moved ahead, down the corridor and through the door into the final chamber, where he saw someone who definitely wasn't Snape, standing in front of a mirror.

"Well..." He said. "This is a surprise."


	16. 01 Chapter 16 Broken Reflections

AN: This is it! The final chapter of year one. I'm currently writing year 4, so no worries, I'm not quitting,. but I might take a short break before I post year 2, but worry not, I will be back soon

Chapter 16: Broken Reflections and Real Identities.

"It is most unexpected, isn't it?" Quirrell said, without a single stutter.

"Well," Harry, commented. "I guess I should have seen it coming. I mean, after all, Snape is such an obvious suspect."

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Harry shrugged feeling rather embarrassed that he had believed his act. "Any good mystery reader could tell you, it's never who you expect. So this means it was you who tried to kill me at the Quidditch match."

"Oh yes. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you... And what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight." The man flicked his wand and cast an 'Incarcerous' spell, causing ropes to fly out of the tip, and wrap around the boy.

Harry almost choked on his own surprise, ignoring the ropes for the moment, which he knew he could get out of easily. "Why would he want to save me? The git hates me."

"Oh, he does," Quirrell said casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."

"So does that mean that you are working for Voldemort as well?"

"You do not get to say my master's name, Potter!" Quirrell snarled.

"Why not?" Harry prodded the man, trying to get answers. "He's dead, remember?"

"Nothing can kill the greatest Dark Lord in history!" He demanded.

"Wasn't the evil git killed by a baby? Doesn't sound so great to me."

Quirrell turned back to the mirror, appearing distracted for a moment, before replying, still not looking back at the bound boy. "I was like you once, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it."

"Believe it or not," Harry said, a plan forming in his mind. "I actually agree about there being no good and evil. I think there's just... The things that men do. Although I guess it's the same thing in the end. But that bit about power I have to laugh at. If you believe that, then you probably believe I'm actually Harry Potter."

"What?" Quirrell spun around to find a coil of conjured rope on the ground in front of a man in his mid-twenties. "You."

"Yes, me." Harry said. He was currently five foot eight inch tall man, with sandy blonde hair, and sharp features. He was wearing long royal blue robes of the finest silk. "You didn't really think I'd let you get the stone, did you?"

"Use him," came a high pitched slithering voice from behind Quirrell. "Make him give you the stone."

"Is that him?" Harry asked. "The mysterious not-really dead dark lord? Can I say hello?"

The high voice spoke again. "Let me speak to him… face-to-face…"

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I have strength enough… for this…"

Quirrell turned away from Harry, as he reached up and unwrapped his turban. The horrendous smell coming from it got stronger as it fell to the floor. Finally the fabric was removed, showing that where the back of the man's head should have been, there was instead another face. It was chalky white, with red eyes and two slits where the nose should have been.

"Ah, Lord Voldemort, I presume." Harry said. "I see now why you need the stone."

"Don't be a fool!" Voldemort hissed. "Join me, give me the stone. Think of the things we can do together."

"Why would I want to work with someone who got beat by a baby?"

Voldemort hissed, angry at someone pointing out his failings. "Kill him!"

Quirrell swung around, pointing his wand, and casting a fast 'Avada Kadavra.' Harry calmly stepped to the side, letting the bright green curse fly past him.

"Is that the best you've got?" Harry asked. "I thought you were hosting... how did it go? Ah yes, 'The greatest dark lord in history.'"

Quirrell roared angrily, before swinging his wand firing two more killing curses at him. Harry again moved aside, now almost up against the mirror. In the distance, he could see the fire blocking the room's entry door suddenly stop moving, and knew they were about to have company. He moved behind the mirror, shifting back to the eleven year old black-haired boy, right as Quirrell fired another curse. This one struck the mirror, shattering it.

"Hello Tom." Dumbledore said as he entered the room, his voice filling the space with his sense of command. Behind him was Professors McGonagall and Flitwick.

"Dumbledore!" Voldemort hissed. "Just couldn't keep your crooked nose out my business, could you? You always were a fool! You may be able to stop me getting the stone, but we will meet again, this I swear."

"No, my lord, what are you doing?" Quirrell asked. It was the last thing he would ever say, as Voldemort ripped away from the man's body, who dropped to the floor, dead. A smoky black shadow hovered above the dead body for a moment, before diving at Harry faster than he could react. He could feel the spirit attempt to siphon a bit of energy from him, and as that was mostly harmless, chose not to blow his cover by using soul magic to protect himself. The spirit passed through him, before rushing at the far wall, departing through it, and disappearing.

With a sigh, Harry dropped to his knees, the energy taken making him feel extremely tired.

"Harry!" He looked up to see his friends run at him, but they were beat by a white owl, who landed on his shoulder, and rubbed up against his head.

"I'm okay." He told everyone. "Just a bit tired."

Hours later, Harry awoke to the sight of Albus Dumbledore leaning over him, while he was sleeping in the hospital wing. Harry took a moment to internally check himself over. All his organs and bones were in the right place, which is an important thing for a shape-shifter to check. It wouldn't have been the first time for him to have awoken to find his subconscious had moved his innards around while he slept. Next, he checked his mind, and found the signs of intrusion. Someone, probably Dumbledore, had invaded his mind while he was asleep. That made him quite mad, but he was just happy he had hidden his real memory of what happened with Quirrell, taking the time to create a realistic fake memory on the way up to the hospital wing. Harry used his Occlumency training to suppress his anger, and looked at the Headmaster.

"Hello, sir."

"Good afternoon, Mister Potter. How are you feeling?"

"Much better sir, thank you." Harry looked around, and noticed piles of candy on the table next to his bed. Dumbledore followed his line of sight.

"Tokens from your friends and admirers," He said, beaming. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so naturally, the whole school knows."

"What happened to the stone?" Harry asked. "Was it lost with the mirror?"

"No, the mirror was easily enough repaired, and the stone retrieved. However, it is still going to be destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Harry was somewhat confused, trying to figure out what was going on in Dumbledore's mind. "What about your friend, Nicolas Flamel?"

"Oh, you know about Nicolas?" said Dumbledore, sounding quite delighted. "You _did_ do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat, and agreed it's all for the best."

Harry now knew that the Headmaster was blatantly lying, he just didn't know why. Dumbledore's motivations were never easy to suss out. "But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?"

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die." Dumbledore smiled at the look of confusion on Harry's face. "To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, _very _long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all ― the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

And then it hit Harry, assuming he was even telling the truth, Dumbledore thought that using the stone was simply wrong. The man would never use the stone himself, and was attempting to impose his own decisions on others... Unless he was lying, in which case, there was no telling his real motivations. He decided to move on to another important topic.

"Sir, It seems obvious now that Voldemort isn't really dead. I don't imagine preventing him getting the stone will stop him from eventually coming back."

"No, Harry, I don't believe it has. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share… not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time ― and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."

Harry internally sighed at the man's boundless optimism. He wasn't so blinded by positive thinking as to not see a fight on the horizon.

"Sir, Quirrell said something about Snape that I didn't understand."

"Professor Snape, Harry." The Headmaster corrected.

"Yes, him ― Quirrell said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?"

"Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Mr. Malfoy. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."

"What was that?"

"He saved his life."

Harry fought not to roll his eyes, understanding how the man's ego would never let him forget that. Seeing the exasperation on Harry's face, he mistook it for confusion.

"Yes…" Dumbledore continued dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt… I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace…"

"And I thought the eleven year olds could be petty." Harry muttered to himself, before speaking up. "Anyway sir, thank you for your time."

"Not a problem, my boy." The man stood and, after a bad experience with an every-flavor bean, he left the infirmary.

After arguing with Madam Pomfrey, Harry's friends were allowed to visit. He had thought long and hard about what to tell them, and as much as he wasn't planning to drag them into the coming fight against Voldemort, he still felt it was better if they knew what was coming, and could prepare. So he he told them everything.

"It was Voldemort." Hermione muttered, shocked. Neville was the only one who twitched at the name, having been raised in the magical world.

"So the stone's gone?" Sophie asked. "Flamel is going to die?"

"That's what Dumbledore says." Harry answered. "Though if you ask me, do you really think that a man who lived six hundred years would balance his entire life on one stone? I personally don't think this is the end of Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel." His friends smiled at that idea, and Harry was glad he could at least give them that partial truth. "So what happened to you two while we were down there?"

"I ran around trying to find the teachers." Hermione said. "Found Professor McGonagall in her office. When I said you went after Snape, she went to her fireplace, and a minute later Snape came through the floo. That was when I realised something was wrong. She didn't want to believe me at first, but looked awfully mad when I said you went after the stone. She called Professor Flitwick, and we all went to the third floor, where we found Sophie with the Headmaster."

"So you got your letter to him then?" Harry asked the shy girl.

"I don't think so?" She seemed unsure. "I sent the letter, then went looking for Hermione. I ran into Professor Dumbledore on the stairwell by the entry hall. As soon as he saw me, it looked like he already knew. He just said, 'Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?' and hurtled off to the third floor."

"Yes… Like he already knew…" Harry muttered to himself, deep in thought for a moment. "Oh well, at least we're all safe. I told you I would be fine."

"You're not fine," Hermione insisted. "You're in the hospital."

"I just needed a nap to recoup some energy, and it's a bit quieter here then in the dorm…" Harry grinned. "Neville snores." That broke the stressful atmosphere as the others laughed. "Anyway, I'm good, and looking forward to the quidditch match. I hope Ravenclaw puts up a mighty fight."

And they did. It was very close, the house of the wise ahead in points for a good portion of the game, but Harry caught the snitch with an amazing dive that nearly ended with him eating turf. The party that night was record breaking, as Oliver hoisted the Quidditch cup above his head. Professor McGonagall came in just after the party started. She conjured a set of steps leading up to a table, where she stood to address the house of the brave.

"An undefeated season for the first time in more years than I care to remember and I am quite proud of you. Hopefully we can continue our winning streak next year. Enjoy a well deserved party, but don't let it go too late."

With that, she left the common room, surreptitiously silencing the door as she left. The party was quite enjoyable, and Harry went to bed exhausted, wrapped in Hedwig's arms as he slept.

The next morning, after breakfast, Harry was approached by Hagrid, who had a congratulatory present for completing his first year. "Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. 'Ere."

Harry took the book, a beautiful leather-bound album. He opened it to see it filled cover to cover with images of his parents. "Sent owls off ter all yer parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos… knew yeh didn' have any… d'yeh like it?"

Harry smiled warmly at his first friend, hugging the book to his chest. "Thank you, Hagrid. I love it."

Harry sat at the Gryffindor table for the end-of-year feast on the last night of school. They had received their exam grades earlier that day, and unsurprisingly, Harry was top of the school, followed closely by Hermione. The rest of his friends were all in the top ten, as they all studied together, Harry making sure they all knew what was coming.

The great hall was decorated in Gryffindor colours, as without Professor Snape being biased with the way he gives and takes points, Slytherin had the lowest number of points they've had in ten years, with a total of eighty three. Hufflepuff was in third, with three hundred and fifty-two, and Ravenclaw was second with four hundred and twenty-six. When Dumbledore awarded the house cup, Harry saw Professor Snape glaring at him, nearly shaking with fury. The man hated him with a passion, but that was okay. Harry was already coming up with fun ways to mess with the irate potions master during the next year.

The train ride back to London was enjoyable for Harry, as he knew he wouldn't be staying at the Dursley's. He just needed to activate the blood ward tap, then he could leave. His friends all talked about what their plans were for the summer. Bella was going to visit her father in Washington, Sophie was mostly staying at home with her parents, and Harry decided he would invite her to go on day trips. He would include Neville in that invitation, as he too had no summer plans. Hermione and her family were planning to visit France. Tonks had completed Hogwarts and needed to begin looking for a job. She was toying with the idea of working for the ministry, but Harry had other ideas.

The arrival at the platform was cramped and noisy, as students rushed off the train to see their families. Harry took the time to hug Bella and Tonks, and shake Neville's hand, before they left via the floo. The other two girls exited through the barrier onto the muggle side of King's Cross. Harry could hear a small red-haired girl pointing him out to her mother, before he moved away toward his grumpy looking relatives.

"Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." Vernon snapped.

Harry internally rolling his eyes, looking forward to what was coming. He said one last goodbye to his friends, before following his uncle to the car. He didn't have to put anything in the boot, as his trunk was shrunk in his pocket, and Hedwig had flown on ahead. The ride back to privet drive was long, quite, and uncomfortable. Once they arrived at number four, he followed his relatives inside, where his uncle immediately spun on him. "Listen to me, boy! There will be non of your freakishness this summer. Your school things will be locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and if you behave, you can have them back for next year."

Harry grinned at the man. "I have a counter proposal. You sod off, and leave me alone, and I let you live."

Vernon's face turned a deep red, almost puce. "How dare you threaten me in my own house!"

"Hey Uncle Vernon, want to see something I learned last year?" The air around Harry rippled, and the eleven year old boy was gone. In his place was a six foot tall man with the body of a professional weight-lifter. He used a technique he had invented years earlier, inspired by the way muggle fishing line when braided was stronger then single filament to make himself stronger. He multiplied the material in his muscles, the individual fibres becoming braided. His muscles themselves didn't get bigger, but his strength was amplified multiple times.

Harry smiled at Vernon, then with one back-handed swing, the obese man flew across the room, crashing into the far wall, leaving cracked plaster as he fell to the floor.

"Now here's what's going to happen." Harry explained in a deeper voice that fit the new body. "I'm going to go upstairs, and activate a magical item that will prevent people from knowing I'm not here, and then I'm leaving, and you won't have to see me again, unless someone comes looking for me."

He pulled out one of the communication mirrors with the powering stone for non-magical people, and set it on the table, then explained how it worked. "If someone shows up here asking for me, you will tell them I am out for the day, then use that to contact me. Otherwise, you will stay out of my room, and forget that I exist. If you break any of these rules… and I will know if you do, I will come back here, and no one will ever find the bodies."

"We'll call the authorities!" Vernon sputtered through his swollen lips.

"And tell them what?" Harry sneered at him. "That you got beaten up by your eleven-year-old shape-shifting nephew? Good luck with that."

Harry laughed as he climbed the stairs, to his room. Once there, he enlarged his trunk and pulled out the invisibility cloak. He wrapped the fabric around his shoulders, which elongated automatically to fit him. He slipped back down the stairs, ignoring his relatives as he moved out of the house and into the street. Once outside of the wards, he cast a wandless detection spell on them. The wards were just as they were the summer before, a weak dark magic defence ward, an anti-appartion and anti-portkey ward, and numerous magic detection wards. He slowly cast a series of temporary suppression fields that fed off the detection wards, nullifying them for a few hours. He then returned to his bed room, where he placed the powering stone back into the rune-carved bowl of blood, reactivating the blood tap. Once his trunk, which again contained the invisibility cloak was shrunk and returned to his pocket, he stepped out of the room, reactivating the muggle repeling ward he had carved the summer before. He didn't want to risk them disturbing the blood ward tap.

Hedwig landed on her man's shoulder as he left number four privet drive for the rest of the summer. He walked to the nearby park, where he then apparated them to their French villa. After settling in, and getting comfortable, they took the time to sift through the post waiting for them, and found a meeting request from Professor Dumbledore.

Harry sighed heavily after reading the letter, which was filled with polite platitudes. He took a long drink from a chilled bottle of butterbeer, before crumpling up the letter and throwing it in the nearby fireplace. He moved to his office, and sat down, followed by Hedwig, who stood behind him with her chin on his left shoulder, and her arms wrapped around him.

"Tomorrow aright?" Harry asked.

"Might as well get it over with." Hedwig replied.

He wrote a long letter full of platitudes of his own, explaining how they had just returned from touring the United States, and looked forward to hearing all about what Dumbledore learned from studying the stone. He arranged a meeting for the next day in the Headmasters office. Hedwig took the letter and apparated to just outside of the Hogwarts wards, where she shifted into a large great horned owl before delivering the missive. After returning home, she found Harry lounging on the private beach that was overlooked by the master bedroom's balcony. She curled up along side him, with her head on his chest, and enjoyed the sun, surf, and first day of true privacy in months.

After lunch the next day, Harry shifted to the same twenty-five year old male form he used while meeting Voldemort over the stone. Hedwig herself changed to the body of a twenty-three year old, with artificially coloured red hair, and amazing curves. It was one of her favourite forms, one that she had used for quite a long time. They apparated just outside of the main gates of Hogwarts, and strolled up the long path to the castle doors. Upon arriving Harry knocked loudly, and it didn't take long for them to open.

"Oh it's you, is it?" Filch asked. "The Headmaster said you'd be coming. Right this way."

The perpetually grumpy man led them to the gargoyle blocking Dumbledore's office. "Cockroach cluster." Filch said, causing the statue to leap aside, then left without another word. The two shape-shifters climbed the stairs, and Harry knocked on the office door.

"Enter." Came a voice from within. Harry opened the door, and together they went in. Dumbledore sat behind his desk with his fake grandfatherly image, smiling at his guests kindly, as if he wasn't doing anything wrong. He then leaned forward and spoke.

"Ah welcome, welcome, Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel."


	17. 02 Chapter 01 - Oxota Madma

Year Two Chapter 01:

Harry Potter opened his eyes, and took in the room around him. He was currently hand-cuffed with his arms behind his back, to a wooden chair in a drab grey room, the walls and floor of which were bare cement. He sighed heavily as he saw the security camera in the corner of the room.

"Well…" He spoke softly. "This is fun."

"Are you aright, lover?" Hedwig's voice spoke in his ear through the communication charm on the dragon tooth earing he wore.

"I'm aright, I just hate those electric tasers. They make my skin crawl… literally. Feels like it's about to climb off and crawl away."

"Eww. Not a mental image I needed right now."

"Sorry. On another less disturbing subject, how's our newest recruit doing."

"I'm doing great." Came a voice from the communication charm, that definitely was not Hedwig's.

"She's surprisingly excited despite risking her life on her first government spy mission." Hedwig commented.

"Well, I for one can't blame her." Harry noted. "After all, it's only a fact gathering mission. Wait for the head guy, ransack his mind, then fight our way out. Easy. I just wish I could stretch my arms a bit, but there's a camera here. I think whoever is watching it would notice me dislocate the joints in my shoulders."

"Just sit tight," The second female voice spoke into his ear. "Lysenko just arrived. He'll probably be with you soon."

"Aright, going radio silent. See you soon." Harry sat, after ending communications, and let his mind wander, thinking back to what had gotten him in this situation. It had all started after their meeting with Dumbledore, who had spent an hour blowing smoke at Harry and Hedwig, who were at the time in their Flamel identities. He was claiming that Voldemort had destroyed the sorcerer's stone, which they all knew was a lie, but weren't going to speak up. The fact that Dumbledore's beard was trimmed very short told the Potter/Flamel's that Dumbledore had triggered the self destruct Harry had carved into the fake stone.

After leaving the meeting, to 'set their affairs in order', they returned to the French villa owned under the name Flamel, and aside from sending out one letter, they spent the day enjoying each other's company uninterrupted. That night, while they lay together in bed, Hedwig could tell that something was on Harry's mind. He was still awake, and couldn't lie still.

"What's the matter, lover?"

"It's Voldemort. He's obviously not dead. I just was thinking about what that means for our future."

"It means we will overcome him just like we have everything else. We haven't lived this long just to get killed by a jumped up magical Nazi. We just need to begin planning what we are going to do before it's too late."

"I guess your right." Harry knew deep down that it wasn't going to be easy, but then nothing ever was. They would survive it.

The next day, Harry and Hedwig shifted to a form they often used when going out in public, this pair only twenty years old. Harry with hair short and black, with blood-red streaks, and Hedwig's golden blonde. In those identities, they went by the names Charles Carmichael and Sarah Walker.

After arriving in Diagon Alley, the two approached the ice cream parlour, or more specifically the pink haired woman sitting at a table outside.

They had set up a meeting, deciding to teach Tonks occlumency and emotional control, so she would no longer shift her hair at every strong emotion. The three spent the first two weeks learning, then spent the next twelve hours rolling around in bed together. Harry and Hedwig were absolutely loving and loyally devoted to one another, but had no problem taking an extra woman to their bed once in a while.

After a vigorous bout of love-making, Tonks confided in the couple that she was planning on applying to the Auror

academy. That was when Harry decided to show Tonks that there was more she could do with magic than working for the ministry. While Tonks and Hedwig slept, Harry slipped out of the loft, and was back within an hour, waking up the two women.

"We got a job." He said, once they were both conscious. He held up a folder, flipping through papers within it. "It seems that a British wizard was caught selling magically enhanced weapons to a muggle arms-dealer. We've been asked to track down the man, and retrieve the weapons.

"Asked by who?" Tonks wondered.

"The people we work for... duh." She stared at Harry, amused by his non-answer.

"Anyway, I was allowed to meet with the wizard, he had good occlumency shields, but not good enough to stop me. I got the information on the weapons. Dress for the cold. We're going to Russia."

To find the weapons, they first needed to find Nikolai Lysenko, also known as The Mad Russian. They spent three days sifting through the minds of Lysenko's men, but all they learned was that the only one who knew the location of the weapons was the mad Russian himself. The problem was that Lysenko was known for being a ghost, no one knew where he was, not even his militia. After much discussion, they decided that Harry would get himself captured by Lysenko's soldiers to draw the arms dealer out of hiding.

"That was a brilliant idea." Harry muttered, shifting around in the chair, waiting for the Russian to finally show himself. His mind wandered back to memories of Hedwig and Tonks naked and pleasuring each other, until the door opened.

Nikolai Lysenko was a thin man barely five feet six inches tall, who's skin looked like leather, with a number of old scars on his face and neck. He wore a heavy fur lined coat and spoke with a deep Russian accent.

"Zhey tell me you were caught trying to break into zhe warehouse." He sneered at Harry who just grinned back at him. "Do you vish to te tell me vhy?"

"I was looking for the loo." Harry replied.

Lysenko grinned then back handed his prisoner across his left cheek. Harry could feel blood on his face where the ring worn by the arms-dealer had cut him. He decided not to wait any longer, and delved into the man's mind. He found himself standing in Lysenko's mind-scape, that of a small Russian village, his child-hood home. It was just as untrained as any other non-magical person's, knowledge and memory blocks floating aimlessly between the small wooden structures of the village. Harry quickly sifted through the floating blocks of memory until he found the information he needed on the weapon sale. Unfortunately what he found was very not good, so he took the time to copy a few extra files, on the specifics of the armament being sold. After taking a moment to store the newly created knowledge block in his own mind he returned to his conscious body only moments after being struck.

"Camera's are off. We're ready" Spoke Hedwig's voice in his ear.

"Who are you?" Lysenko asked. He stood with his fingers intertwined in front of himself, expecting an answer.

"In certain circles, they call me La Magra."

The Russian grinned widely. "Zhe Blood God? I have heard stories about you. Master infiltrator, Master assassin, Master soldier. They say that you can make entire armies run away at the sound of your name. And to zink... you are my prisoner. You're telling me zhat I caught zhe infamous La Magra?"

Harry grinned sharply, and chuckled. "No."

He was suddenly standing, his hands free of the cuffs. As soon as the Russian had hit him, Harry had used his shape-shifting abilities to collapse the bone structure of his hands, allowing the cuffs to slide off. Now that he had the information, it was time to continue the mission. After standing, he swung up his right arm, still holding the steel cuffs, and wandlessly cast a banishing charm into the two wrist rings, propelling the cuffs straight at Lysenko. Harry's aim was very good, and the cuffs hooked onto the Russians hands where they snapped shut. Harry lunged forward, drawing his right fist back, and smashing it across Lysenko's face, causing the man to drop like a sack of potatoes.

"The Russian's down." Harry said aloud to his two companions. With but a thought, the cut on his face healed, leaving his skin unblemished.

"Did you get the information we came for?" Tonks asked.

"That's an affirmative." He replied. "And let's just say it's not good."

"Aright, let's clean up, and get out of here." Hedwig concluded.

"We'll see you outside, Charlie." Tonks said, calling him by the name of the identity he was currently. She didn't know that Charles and Sarah were also eleven year old Harry Potter and his owl.

Harry quickly searched the Russian man, finding a heavy calibre hand gun tucked in his belt. He tucked the gun into the back of his own belt before wandlessly casting a feather-light charm on Lysenko. He hefted him over his shoulder, and carried him out into the hallway, quickly moving toward the main storeroom of the warehouse, where the exit was located.

The main room was mostly a series of pathways between stacks of crates and boxes. Harry was half way to the exit when he heard people moving ahead of him, and quickly ducked into a side walkway. He dropped Lysenko unceremoniously on the ground, and readied the gun he had found on the Russian. He carefully leaned around the corner but had to quickly pull back to prevent being shot by the men that were blocking his way to the exit.

"What's going on in there?" Hedwig's voice came over the earing charm. "Are you aright?"

"I'm pinned down for a moment," Harry replied, "Nothing I can't handle. I'll be out in a minute."

At that moment in Harry's mind-scape his subconscious self was forming temporary connections between his own skills and those he had used Legilimency to copy from other people. He connected the part of his mind that controls muscle memory, his musculature control block, with the skill block he had copied from a master sharp-shooter years before. With a smile, he leaned around the corner and fired twice, both shots hitting two of the soldiers, causing them to fall back against on of the wall-like stacks of crates, which leaned slightly as they hit it, and looked dangerously close to falling. Seeing this gave Harry an idea. He pulled back behind his cover, dodging another volley of gunfire, and quickly forged another connection in his mind-scape, this time between his musculature control block, and a block of skills he had copied two years earlier from an ex-gymnast turned art thief. With the skill set active, the box walls around him suddenly looked more like a jungle gym and climbing wall. Harry tucked the gun into the waistband of his pants, against his back, before making a distraction for the soldiers attacking him. He glanced over the box wal he was hidden behind, and cast a wandless spell.

"Imperio."

The soldier he cast the spell on spun around and began firing on his own associates.

His enemies thoroughly distracted, Harry swiftly scaled the box wall next to where he stood. Once on top of the boxes, he had a clear view to where Lysenko's militia were gathered.

Harry moved as fast as he could silently, circling around the soldiers, and was soon standing atop the wall next to the wall he had seen leaning earlier. On the other side of that wall were the men who were still taking shots at where he had originally taken cover. He crouched slightly, then leapt, landing on top of the rickety wall, leaning into it, and throwing his weight forward, causing the wall to lean with him, and finally collapse. As it began to fall, he leapt again, his hands wrapping around one of the ceiling support beams, and he swung on it, hanging on, and watching as the wall below him caved in, burying the soldiers beneath a mountain of crates and boxes.

"Landslide majority." Harry muttered, as he let go of the beam, and dropped to the ground, landed as graceful as a cat. He quickly headed back towards where he had left Lysenko, scooping the man onto his right shoulder. He headed for the exit, when movement caught his eye, a single soldier that he missed when the wall collapsed. The man had his gun aimed, and a single shot rang out. Harry leapt aside, but was not fast enough, catching the bullet in his left shoulder. Lysenko was dropped to the floor again, emitting a soft groan as he landed, still unconscious. Harry's hand lashed out, projecting a wandless stunning charm at the man, who collapsed to the ground.

"Damn it." Harry muttered, ripping the bullet hole in his shirt wider to see the damage. It wasn't even close to the first time he had been shot, and although it still hurt, it wasn't anything near the pain of the Cruciatus Curse, so he could deal with it. His meta-morphic shape-shifting skills made healing wounds easy for him. The bullet slid out of the hole in his shoulder, along with any dirt and dropped to the floor. Harry ignored it as he watched the hole close. He then vanished the blood on his skin and clothes, along with vanishing the bullet and blood on it. It wouldn't be good for muggle authorities to find a bloody bullet without a body to go with it.

Next he used a cloth mending spell, as the regular repair spell doesn't work on fabric, to close the rip, and make the shirt look like new.

"Are you aright, my love?" Hedwig asked.

"I'm fine, just one of Lysenko's goons got the drop on me. I'm fine."

"Well be careful, please." She insisted. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Harry smiled, as he scooped up the Russian arms-dealer again. "I love you too."

He was soon outside in the watered down sun, what little was peaking through the think cloud cover. "We have to hurry. We have almost no time."

He touched the hand-cuffs still on the Mad Russian, and they glowed blue for a moment. "Portkey. Let's go."

The two women touched the cuffs and all four vanished in a flash of blue light. They touched down in an grimy alley between two brick buildings. It was dark where they were standing, the street lights not making it far into the alley. As they moved out onto the street, Harry felt the abilites he had access to, the gymnastics and sharp-shooting fade away. His subconscious self had severed the temporary connections he had forged to prevent his mind from damaging itself trying to purge non-learned skills. The human mind is not able to absorb knowledge copied or stolen from other people, not unlike how the body can't accept non-matching blood types. The connections Harry had learned to create could only be held for so long before they caused damage as his mind tried to purge the knowledge and everything connected to it. Luckly, as long as the knowledge blocks aren't being actively used, his mind seemed to leave them alone. He had built up quite a collection of skills over his many years.

"Where are we?" Tonks asked.

"New York." Harry replied. "And we should be right near..." They turned a corner, and they could see a fence running parallel to the street separating it from a number of buildings. "The east docks. We need to get to pier twelve."

The three magicals, along with the unconscious arms-dealer approached the fence, swinging wide to not be seen by the guard house near the main entrance. The fence was lined with rolls of razor wire, which was no problem for harry and his companions, as they simply apparated past it, and were in the dock yard. They moved quickly past buildings, looking for a storage area known only to Harry, and the unconscious man.

"There!" Hedwig pointed into the distance. "Pier twelve."

They rushed over to the area where there was a big arch with a large 'pier 12' sign hanging from it. The area was mostle empty, with only scattered crates, and one large steel shipping crate.

"Here it is!" Harry declared, rushing to the metal box. He dropped the still unconscious Lysenko to the ground before lifting the latch and pulling open the door. Inside sat two large plastic jugs full of liquid, each with two blocks of what looked like clay duct taped to them. Small bundles of wires led from the blocks to a laptop, which in turn had a larger bundle leading to a large ticking digital clock. A clock ticking down with only thirty-four minutes left.

Harry noticed Hedwig's face pale, she obviously recognized what it was, but Tonks didn't.

"What is that?"

"A magical dirty bomb."

AN: Harry's Nickname in this chapter comes from the film 'Blade'. I originally chose this name as a filler, but I tried translating a number of things into different languages, but I eventually gave up, and stuck with my original choice.

I needed something dramatic and kinda frightening to people in the story world that would hear it, and I think it fits. The Blood God.


	18. 02 Chapter 02 - Dirty Dirty Magic

AN: Elements in this chapter are based off the story 'Harry Potter and the Summer of Change' by Lorddwar

Chapter 02

"A dirty bomb?" Tonks asked. "And what's that when it's at home?"

"A bomb that spreads deadly material over hundreds of miles. This thing can potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people."

She paled dramatically, even her hair turning white. Harry wandlessly cast a diagnostic charm on the bomb. "The liquid is Alihotsy draught."

"Doesn't that cause-" Tonks began.

"Hysteria." Hedwig answered. "extreme fear, and paranoia. Imagine that spread across one of the most populated cities in the world. The blocks are powdered Erumpent horn. It's a Class B Tradeable Material, highly explosive. Mix it into a clay, and it's apparently indistinguishable from C4."

"Why would they use a computer?" Tonks asked.

Harry carefully flipped the computer over showing the runes scratched into the bottom. "Rune-work to set off the explosives."

"Can you stop it?" Hedwig asked.

"We should be able to." Harry said, swallowing silently. "Then again, we only have thirty minutes to find out."

He pulled his rune carving knife from his pocket, and began changing the runes already scratched into the bottom of the laptop. After nearly five minutes of carving he leaned back, returning the knife to his pocket. He opened the laptop and tried to turn it on. "It's fake. Rather smart to make it look like muggle technology."

"So what do we do with it now?" Tonks asked.

"We send for pick-up, and head home." Hedwig lied. As Tonks turned to face her, Harry grinned, before raising his arm, and firing a stunning charm into Tonks's back, causing her to drop to the floor, unconscious.

When she woke up, she was sitting in a hard wooden chair in a dimly lit room with no windows. "Wha-" Was the only thing that she could think to say as she awoke. The only door in or out of the room opened allowing what appeared to be a man to enter the room. He wore a black hooded long sleeve dragon-skin coat, that reached all the way to his ankles. The coat was zipped up from his waist to neck, under which she could see he wore black dragon-skin pants and matching boots and gloves. The hood was up and fitted with a concealment charm, covering his face with shadows. There was no way to tell what the man looked like, or even what colour his skin was. She could just see the outline of a mouth and nose deep within the shadows.

"Where am I? Where am my friends?" Tonks demanded.

"You're friends are fine. You will be reunited with them both shortly."

"What do you want from me?"

"My name is Blackstaff. You are here because you have proven that you have what it takes to be an Unspeakable."

"Wait, what?" Tonks was very confused. "You kidnapped me for-"

"A job interview, yes." A smile could just be made out on the face beneath the hood. "We're the Department of Mysteries, what did you expect? If you decline our offer, you'll be obliviated, and won't even remember this meeting."

"So what is it you want me to do? It's my understanding that you research magic. I'm not exactly the smartest witch out there."

"That is only the part we allow people to see. You can think of us more like... the protectors of this world. We save lives and enforce the peace."

"Isn't that what the Auror's do?" Tonks asked.

The hooded man shook slightly, as he chuckled softly. "In the past, the Aurors were like the police, while we were more like the military. In recent times, the Aurors have become more akin to Cornelius Fudge's personal enforcers. That and a dumping ground for people he doesn't like. That's no offence meant to Madam Bones, who has done amazing things with the little she has had to work with. Anyway, the Auror's deal with petty crime, and the occasional wannabe dark lord. We specialize in infiltration and information gathering. We also have some of the most qualified fighters in the British isles working here. Where you can think of the Auror's as city police, you can think of us more as the American Central Intelligence Agency, or the the British MI6. We're spies. And with the right training, you can be too."

The look on Tonks face screamed excitement. "I'll do it. I'll need to see my friends before I go anywhere else, though."

"I don't think that will be a problem." With that, the man reached up, and flipped back his hood.

"Charlie?"

Harry tapped one finger against his lips in a shushing motion. "When we are here it's Blackstaff. Or Unspeakable Blackstaff, if you want to be official.

"You're... you..." Tonks was truly struck speechless. "What about... What do I even call her? Sarah?"

"You mean Unspeakable Ruby."

"So she also works here?"

"Sometimes. We spend a lot of time doing undercover work, so you won't see us around too much, unfortunately, but we'll definitely be looking you up when we are in town. I don't know what you will be doing, but last I heard, they were saying since you wanted to be an Auror, they were going to train you for undercover work, have you infiltrate the Auror department."

"Who do I report to? I mean, do we work for the ministry?"

"Oh god no." Harry replied. "You'll be meeting your handler soon, she will be assigning you to a trainer, then once you complete your first mission, you will be assigned to a team. Each team reports to one of the Directors. As for the department as a whole, as far as anyone out there knows we are entirely self contained. The real truth though, is that we report to the ICW as part of their Emergency Response Division. I guess if you were to name us, we'd be Magical Intelligence, though between you and me, that's usually an oxymoron."

Harry stood up, and returned his hood to it's place covering his head. "Follow me."

"How do you do that with your voice, make it sound so different?"

"It's one of the many charms on the coat and hood. Voice modulation." Harry led Tonks out of the room into a small hallway, that only had three doors, the one they had just exited, one directly across from it, and one facing them at the end of the short hall. They crossed in two steps and entered the room, which appeared to be nothing more then a closet. There was a coat that matched what Harry was wearing, matching pants, and a shirt which was actually body armor made to go over clothing, along with a pair of boots, and gloves, all made of black dragon-skin. "The hood has a number of charms on it, including the obscuring charm and voice modulation, as you can see. It's enchanted so that the hood can only be pulled off by the wearer, or another Unspeakable. Also, there is a charm that allows you to see through basic disillusionment charms and invisibility, including the one on the identification tags all Unspeakables wear."

"You're wearing a name tag?"

"Yeah." Harry said, pointing at the left breast of his coat. "Right here. It shows name, rank, and skills in different area's. You will be wearing one too. As for the specifics, the clothing is all interconnected with the same magic, controlled by the gloves. It's all made of Hungarian Horntail hide, demigise hair interwoven with skin from a Grand Chameleon. It makes it so you are not quite invisible, but has more like a notice-me-not effect. Just make a fist, and use a mental command of 'blend', like casting silent magic, for the notice-me-not, or the phrase 'colour change' followed by the specific item and colour you want to make the clothing, or leave off the item if you want to change everything at the same time. Like so." With that, Harry held up his hand near his face, and willed his armour to change to white. He used the opposite phrase to make everything black again. "The clothes are all temperature controlled and self-cleaning. The boots are charmed to be silent, and not leave footprints.

Also there's one feature that I think is quite amazing. The coat has the ability to activate a portable Fidelius Charm. When it's active, it feeds off the wearers magic to stay active and it does take a lot of power, so use that sparingly, it's for emergency use. It makes you not invisible, but completely un-seeable. If someone knows where your location, then they can see you, but all you have to do is move. New location, new secret. Like so." Harry suddenly seemed to get thinner, before he faded away, and Tonks could no longer see him.

"Unspeakable Blackstaff is standing behind your right shoulder." came his voice, whispering in his ear. She looked over and could see him again. "Sound is blocked as well, unless you use a force of will to be heard. Also, as I said, when you move."

He took one step to the left, and was gone again. His voice echoed about the room. "I could be anywhere. The charm makes you impossible to find, unless you tell someone where you are." Harry reappeared, looking the same as always, but he could feel a slight drain on his magical core.

He returned to the shelf where Tonk's unspeakable issue boots sat, and took a thin black leather wallet off the shelf next to the boots, and held it out to her. "Here. Put a drop of blood on this."

He handed Tonks a knife from a holster on the back of his belt. She took it, and used it to slice her thumb to place a blood drop, which was absorbed by the wallet. Harry then took back the knife and handed her a short metal rod with a shaped handle that he took from the shelf next to the wallet. He unscrewed the back end, showing a small hole into the handle... "Place a drop in there too." She did as instructed while he explained. "That is your unspeakable wand, only to be used while on a mission. It's short so it's easy to palm and use, only six inches. It contains numerous cores, and is designed to activate the core that will work best for you, and bind it to you so no one else can use it, by using that blood drop. The wallet is your I.D. and badge when out in the world. It contains a series of illusion, confounding, and compulsion charms. Basically, it shows whatever you want it to, and it makes people believe it's real. To use it, just will it to show something before opening it. Don't worry about knowing what the badge looks like. The persons mind will fill in the blanks, they will literally see what they expect to see."

"Handy that."

"Definitely, now dress quickly. I'll be waiting for you outside."

Harry slipped out of the room, leaving Tonks to change. He was not the only one standing there when she came out. There was another Unspeakable standing, talking quietly with him. She could now see the name-tags clearly on the two standing waiting for her. One said Blackstaff, the other said Ruby. Above both names were round silver pips. Below the names were a series of vertical pips, each vertical row in different colours.

"Hello, Unspeakable Raven." Said the other cloaked figure who was definitely a female. "It's good to see you joined us. Remember, when in a situation where the term 'Unspeakable' would draw too much attention, especially undercover, you use the term 'agent' instead, so you would be Agent Raven."

Tonks could see a smile on the face of the person who was wearing a name-tag identifying her as Unspeakable Ruby, who she remembered was Sarah Walker. She of course didn't know that Sarah was actually Hedwig.

"Now you should be able to see out I.D.'s." Harry said. "The pips above the name denotes what can be done in the field. A level one is a new member or someone who is still learning the ropes. A level three is the team leader. A level four is a team leader and operation specialist meaning they can command multiple teams and have operational discretion if a mission becomes complicated by external forces. In short, if the mission goes sideways, a level four can change the mission to something attainable or call it off. A level five would be the two directors, Unspeakable Horace, and Unspeakable Marcus. They call the shots and plan the missions." Harry and Hedwig each had four pips.

"Once your skills are determined, they will be shown on the badge, and will determine which missions you get. See mine?"

The vertical pips on Harry's badge were coloured left to right, red, blue, green, yellow, purple, white, and black. He had seven pips in the red, blue, green, white and black rows. He had four in yellow, and two in purple.

"Okay, red is for knowledge of offensive spells. Blue is defensive spells. The green is for speed and accuracy with spells. Yellow is for knowledge and skill with healing spells. Purple is seduction skills, which are surprisingly important in this job. White is for ability with occlumency, and black is for stealth, tracking, and covert skills. As a metamorphmagus, you'll probably be an instant seven in black."

Harry and Hedwig led Tonks out of the short hallway, and through another door that led to a spell range and duelling area, where they met up with Unspeakable Jade, the person who would be Tonks' handler.

"Jade, this is Unspeakable Raven. Your new rookie."

"Thank you, Blackstaff." She turned to Tonks, and pointed at the target range. "Aright, rookie, let's see what you can do. Show me all the spells you know."

"Good luck, Raven." Hedwig said.

They watched as Tonks was put through her paces, showing off her spell knowledge, and taking part in a live fire field test, where she did well, but ended up having to spend a few hours in the medical ward. Three days of work later, they were standing in a conference room with Unspeakable Jade.

"Congratulations, Rookie." Jade said, "You have proven yourself knowledgeable enough for field training. You are going to be trained by both us, and by your cover job as an Auror. Remember, our training will always take precedence, so if we say to do something, and they say not to, you'd better damn well do it. You got that, rookie?"

"Yes sir." Tonks responded.

"Now, for your first field mission, you are to take this paperwork," She held up a brown folder. "Into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. You are to put it into the employee cabinet in the main document store room, so when you show up for your first day, they will believe the fact they weren't told about you is just a paperwork error. Your sponsors are to go along to keep you out of trouble, but can not help you to complete the mission. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Well then get started. Good luck."

Tonks tucked the file into a pocket of her coat, and left the room, followed by Harry and Hedwig. The last thing the two shape-shifters heard on their way out, was Jade's voice. "Keep her safe."


	19. 02 Chapter 03 - Spy Games

AN: Characters in this chapter are from "Make A Wish" by "Rorschach's Blot"

Chapter 03:

The trio left the department arriving in a round room that rotated around them. "How do we get out of here?" Tonks asked.

"Well, usually we use the apparition and portkey point." Hedwig explained. "If you want to get into the ministry proper, then we take the door."

When they stood together in the centre of the room, Harry spoke. "Exit." One of the doors clicked open, showing that it led to a long dark hallway. They walked along until they reached a lift that led up into the rest of the ministry building. Tonks hit the button for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and stood quietly waiting. Anyone who didn't know her would have guessed that she was calm and relaxed, but her two companions could see the nervous energy humming about her.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Harry spoke up.

"I know, just..." Tonks replied. "First mission. This is big."

Soon the lift stopped, letting on more people, and they were forced to stop talking. The people who got on eyed the three cloaked figures warily. The black-hooded Unspeakables were well known within the ministry, but everyone knew to stay out of their way. Even the minister was nervous around them, they were a mystery unto themselves.

Soon the lift stopped, and the three exited, leaving the nervous men relieved that they were gone. It was getting into the evening by this point, and the department was emptier then it would be mid-day, but there were still plenty of people rushing around trying to finish their work. As they crossed the room, Hedwig tried to give some last minute advice. "Just walk around like you own the place and they'll leave you alone, but if anyone gives you a hard time, use your I.D. wallet."

It didn't take long for them to cross the room, and Harry and Hedwig waited outside the record room, while Tonks went in, successfully distracted the attendant, and planted the folder in the appropriate cabinet.

They were soon headed back to the Department of Mysteries. They waited while the round room spun around them.

"Here's something you need to know. The Unspeakables that work in the cover department are the ultimate cover. They don't know that they are only a cover. Each door in this room leads to two places, the real Department, and the cover. To get to the cover, you just state which room you want to get to, like I said 'exit' before to leave. To get to the real department, you state you title, then the room, Like so."

"Unspeakable Ruby, Offices." On of the door frame lit up, signifying that the door was ready to be opened. "The doors only light up like that when they lead to our Department of Mysteries

Jade was in her office when they arrived, and Tonks was congratulated on a successful first mission. She was informed that the next day, she would report in for training, before attending her first day in her cover job as an Auror cadet. There was a long process involving signing magical contracts and taking binding oaths of secrecy. After that, the trio left the ministry, heading home. Tonks was excited to tell her mother about having a career and soon took her leave. Later that night, she received a letter from Harry Potter, inviting her to a day out in Diagon Alley that weekend. She happily wrote back, saying she would be there, if she wasn't working.

The rest of the week flew by for the two shape-shifters, between working other missions, which took them all over the world, spending time with Tonks, and preparing for the next school year. There was also a trip to a company they owned named Black Ink. Harry and Hedwig's identities as owners were known simply as Mister and Miss Black, not first names. The headquarters was located on a small island in the south pacific.

"Hello, Boss!" Came the female voice of Henchgirl one of his two co-managers. She and a man known simply as 'The Professor' were the two in charge of Black Ink when Harry and Hedwig weren't around. The were an extremely strange pair, but both very brilliant with an unusual way of looking at the world that helped them to invent amazing things. The problem was they had trouble with coming up with ideas. That's where Harry and Hedwig came in. They met in Paris and the four had hit it off instantly. Harry gave them a few ideas and they had easily created the things that he came up with. They created for the sake of creation, but Hedwig had recommended that they sell their creations, and Black Ink was born. They were now the biggest provider of magical items to the ICW and Unspeakables in the world, along with selling a number of their inventions. They currently had a number of items in the works, including a system based off Harry's communication mirrors for people to be able to view Quidditch games in their homes. Sort of a magical version of the television. They were also the company that created the I.D. Wallet, the bind-able wand, and their newest invention.

"A zippo lighter?" Harry asked.

"It's not just a lighter." Henchgirl informed him. "I mean, yes, we used a lighter as the base, but the flint is actually a compressed specialized floo powder."

Harry leaner forward dramatically. "Are you telling me that that thing can make floo calls without a fireplace?"

"That's exactly what we are telling you." The Professor answered.

"You two have really outdone yourselves. Please send some to the ICW, along with one for each of us, so that we can contact each other easier." Harry and Hedwig were the go-betweens for the English Unspeakables and Black Ink. Everyone thought that they meet with Unspeakables Blackstaff and Ruby.

It turned out that The Professor and Henchgirl had already made a bunch of the lighters, and the two shape-shifters left with two of their very own along with a box for the Unspeakables. They toured the company, looking into each running lab. He stopped to see the progress on the communication mirror television system, and it looked like at the current rate they were about eight months away from their first generation. They were in the middle of developing a system that would record what the 'camera' mirrors see.

"How's it going, boys?" Harry asked.

The techs working in that lab greeted the shape-shifters and explained what they were working on before getting back to it. They soon left and stopped at the villa that Sirius was staying in, where they changed into their dragon-skin coats and armour, before portkeying to the Department of Mysteries.

They walked down the short hall that connected them to the rotating room and stepped inside. As soon as the door closed the room spun, and then Hedwig spoke. "Unspeakable Ruby, Offices." The frame around one of the doors lit up, and they stepped through into a comfortable lounge room with two hallways heading away from each side, lined with the doors of offices. Harry and Hedwig had two connected offices themselves, not that they ever used them. They turned one of the offices into a bedroom, while the other was a shared office and sitting room. They made them into a living space in case they ever needed to sleep in the department.

The two shape-shifters headed to the office of Unspeakable Horace, the manager they generally dealt with. Hedwig knocked and a moment later they heard a click coming from the door, signalling the lock hid disengaged, and they could enter. The private offices and quarters were the only place that an Unspeakable could remove the hood in the department. It was the reason why they all had locking doors.

Inside the office was an Unspeakable, indistinguishable from any other, except for the name tag with the five pips on his armour. His coat was hanging on a rack near the door, and Horace was wearing a thin grey hooded jacket with the same obscuration charms as the black dragon hide coat. He looked up at them, Identifying them by the name tags.

"Ah, Blackstaff, Ruby, please come in."

They entered Horace's office and sat at the two chairs in front of his desk. As a manager, Horace met with a lot of the Unspeakables, so he needed places for them to sit.

Harry pulled the box of floo lighters out of one of his expanded pockets.

"What are these?" Horace asked.

"Portable floo's for communication. By the way, Mister Black says hello."

"Well tell the mystery man I said hi back." he said with a chuckle. "How do they work?"

"You place a drop of blood on the front and state the name that is going to be the floo address." Harry explained pulling one of his out of his pocket, the one with a 'U' scratched into the front. For example, I set mine to my title."

Hedwig pulled out a lighter of her own, also scratched with a 'U'. She flicked it open, twisted the little wheel and said 'Unspeakable Blackstaff' at the flame. Harry's lighter began to vibrate. He opened it, spun the wheel and said 'answer'.

"Blackstaff secure." He said, as was protocol when using a floo connection, signifying that it was safe to talk without anyone that did not have clearance overhearing. They also were not supposed to use the term Unspeakable until they knew both sides were secure.

"Ruby secure."

Horace could hear each of their voices as they spoke to the flame of the lighter, and the echo coming out of the opposite lighter. "That is amazing."

They both shut their lighters, returning them to their pockets. "There's ten of them in the box. It should be enough to get us started. I asked Mister Black to have more sent over to us, and to the ICW."

Horace smiled at his best agents. "Good work."

Finally Saturday saw Harry opening his eyes, sore yet happy after completing their latest mission the night before, followed by a particularly energetic bout of celebratory sex.

"All these years, and she still manages to surprise me."

"What's that?" Hedwig mumbled, not fully awake yet.

"Nothing my love, go back to sleep."

"Too late," She said, looking up at him with bright blue eyes. "You already woke me up."

Harry grinned at her. "Well in that case, let's get up. We gotta get ready, we're spending the day with our friends from Hogwart."

"We do, don't we?" With that, she stretched, and sat up, deciding to get cleaned up, even though she was going to spend the day as an owl. "What are you planning today?"

"I figured we'd do shopping in Diagon Alley, then lunch, then I would show them the muggle side of London. Maybe see a film."

"Sounds fun." she repied.

Two hours later, Harry was standing in Diagon Alley with Hedwig on his shoulder, waiting for their friends. Sophie was the first to arrive, with a large smile on her face. She was escorted by her parents who were happy that she had friends who wanted to spend time with her. Next came Bella and her father who fell out of the fireplace one at a time. Not long after, Neville stepped out of the fire without a single stumble.

"I still can't get the hang of it." Bella muttered.

"At least you aren't the only one." Harry noted, pointing at her father, who was picking himself up off the ground. "Hello, Mister Swan."

"Hello, Harry," He replied. "Hello everyone."

"And there's my favourite Auror." Harry announced as Tonks spilled out of the fireplace. "What's it like working for the minisry?"

Tonks had a small mysterious smile, like she knew some great secret, as she answered. "It's great. The training is really hard, but you know I'm not one to give up when things get tough."

Harry grinned, happy that the girl was obviously pleased. The group moved out into the alley, now that everyone was there. They spent the day looking through the shops, Harry paying for a set of dragon-skin jackets for his friends, when he saw them trying them on in Madam Malkin's. They ate lunch at Fortscue's Ice Cream Parlor, before heading to the Muggle side of London. Neville, as the only pure-blood there, had chosen not to tell his granmother that they were going into muggle London, knowing she wouldn't have allowed it. She wasn't blood-biased, she was just extremely over-protective, and wouldn't have allowed her grandson to go anywhere he'd never been before alone. It was a truly amazing experience for him, seeing the wide array of products available in one store, or seeing what technology was capable of, things he didn't know were possible. He went home that night with an entirely different view of the world.

They got together a few more times, mostly when Harry wasn't away on missions as an Unspeakable, (although they didn't know what he was doing,) and one time he was. They all got together the weekend after Hermione got back from France, and the group got to listen to her go on for an hour about how amazing it was while her parents smiled, seeing their daughter with friends for the first time.

No matter how many times they met up, Bella and her father didn't get any better at floo travel, though that didn't make Charlie any less amazed by the fact they could cross the world in a matter of moments.

The group met up for the last time during the summer the day after their Hogwarts letters came. It was an emotionally mixed occasion for them, as they were happy that they were going back to school, but sad that Tonks wouldn't be going with them. They had planned every group outing to be on one of her day's off from work, but this time, she wasn't with them as they bought their school supplies. Bella convinced her father to buy her a broom so she could try out for the Quidditch team, Sophie bought a home potion cabinet, as it was her favourite subject, and Hermione tried in vain to convince her parents to buy her enough books to fill her library trunk. Besides the fact that it was never going to happen, when they got to the book store they were stopped by the line of people waiting, and the gaudy signs proclaiming a book signing. The store was normally very cramped with wall-to-wall book cases and the influx of people wanting to get a book signed was just making it worse. Harry was ready to call the whole store a miss, but Hermione begged her friends to wait with her while she got a book signed. After all, the dandy who was signing books somehow got his entire book collection on the school list for Defence. Hermione and Sophie waited with their parents in the line while the others moved through the crowd when they saw Tonks standing with a tall dark-skinned man near the signing table.

"Hey Tonks," Bella called. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh hey, guys," See replied, "I'm actually working. They have me paired with Auror Shacklebolt here." Harry raised one eyebrow as Tonks leaned closer and spoke in a not-so-silent stage whisper, "We just call him Shack."

"Well, Hello Mister Shack." Harry said, holding out one hand. His friends each said some form of hello, and waved. Even Hedwig hooted a hello from her place on Harry's shoulder. The tough looking man shook his hand, his eyes flicking to the scar on his head, that he (almost) always wore when in his now twelve-year-old form.

He spoke in a very deep voice. "Hello to you, Mister Potter, and your friends."

"Have you two gotten to meet the fop yet?" Harry asked, gesturing with his chin toward the nearest sign with Lockhart's face on it.

Tonks snorted at the jibe, but it was Shack that answered. "Be careful what you say there Harry. Remember, you are surrounded by people who fancy him. You wouldn't want to start a riot. After all, we'd be the one's having to clean up the mess you made."

Harry chuckled at the man's sense of humour. "You should see Hermione," Neville spoke up, "She's been going on about how great he is."

"No, really?" Tonks asked amazed. "Her first crush, how cute."

"Not really," Neville corrected. "There's nothing cute about it." He seemed to suddenly realize what he said, because he turned a bright red and looked at his feet. Harry gripped his shoulder, supporting him.

"Anyway, you guys hang out here, if you want. I'm going to get our books before the lines get any worse." He left his friends there, and headed to the service counter in the back of the store, where a harassed looking attendant was stationed.

"Hey, can I get three sets of Lockhart's books, and five of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2?"_ He leaned against the counter watching his friends while he waited for the clerk to return.

"Hey there-" Came a voice from beside him.

"Harry-kins." Came a second. Harry looked over to find the Weasley twins. He had met them the year before, but not really spent any time with them. Harry quickly made the decision to change that, knowing that they were pranksters, and figuring he could use a good laugh this year.

"Hello boys. What brings you to fop central? Come to get your books signed?"

"Not us, no." Twin one said.

"Our mum." Twin two stated.

"She's a fan." Twin one finished.

"Fun that. I don't really get how anyone believes anything he writes, but it seems like our teacher this year is a fan of his."

"Yes, well, it's made it." One said, as the clerk returned with a stack of books, for both Harry and the twins.

"More difficult on our family." Two finished, holding up a ratty looking used book. It only took Harry a seconds thought before he pushed the three stacks of Lockhart books at the twins.

"Get them new books, yeah? A full set for their family." He said to the clerk.

"Harry, we can't-"

"Allow you to do that."

"Does it look like I'm listening to you?" Harry asked without looking to them. He started humming to himself while waiting. Soon the man was back with fresh books for the twins and their siblings, along with three more stacks for Harry. The man was very good at the levitation spell. Harry slid a stack of Galleons across the counter and was walking away before the twins could stop him. "See you on the train, boys."

As Harry moved through the crowd, the atmosphere changed, and suddenly everyone was looking at him and whispering excitedly. The crowd parted and a man matching the posters grabbed his arm, smiling at a photographer. Harry deftly twisted his arm out of the man's hold.

"I'm sorry," He said, "But do you always feel up twelve year old boys in a crowd?"

The spectators were struck silent by his statement. He quickly moved away from the golden-haired dandy and back to his friends who looked like they were trying not to laugh. The man seemed to recover quickly, returning to the small stage where he was signing books.

"When all these wonderful students stepped into Flourish and Blotts today to buy a copy of my autobiography, they had no idea that they would be getting much more then my book _Magical Me_, They will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

The crowd cheered and applauded, but Harry dropped his head and sighed, knowing beyond a doubt that he'd be dealing with the man all year. He finally finished his walk to his group of friends, handing over the books he had gotten them.

"Only three sets?" Bella asked.

"Hermione already has them in her library trunk, and I personally refuse to but any of that frauds work."

"How can you say he's a fraud?" Hermione asked, looking almost offended. "He's a great wizard."

"Have you actually read any of his books?"

"Well, no," She replied. "Not yet."

"I have. They're complete lies. First of all, they are filled with contradictory dates, that put him in multiple places at the same time, then his 'solutions' are laughable at best. I mean, in one book, he claims to have wrestled a werewolf into submission, which is... quite frankly ridiculous."

"Really?" She looked crushed. Harry put his arm over her shoulders, and Hedwig hopped over to her, nipping her ear in solace.

"I'm sorry, 'Mione, but his books seems awfully made up to me. Besides, why don't you read his them, and decide for yourself?"

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" Came a voice Harry recognized. It seemed that Draco Malfoy hadn't learned not to mess with him after loosing his wand the year before.

"_Famous_ Harry Potter," said Malfoy. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" Came a voice from his side, this one unrocognised. Harry turned to see a small red-haired girl glaring at the blonde-haired ponce.

"Potter, you've got yourself a _girlfriend_!" drawled Malfoy. She was probably ten or eleven, small, and apparently rather shy as she turned bright red at the boy's insinuation.

"Jealous, Draco?" Harry asked. "I told you, I'm not into wizards. You'll have to find someone else to snog."

The nearby crowd inhaled sharply at Harry's comment. Draco turned bright red himself at the insult and looked like he was about to lunge at Harry, but there was suddenly a hand on his shoulder, and his father was speaking.

"Now now, Draco, play nice with those beneath you."

Before anything else could be said, a red haired man came out of the crowd, looking for Ginny. Malfoy Senior turned to him.

"Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley."

"Lucius," said Mr. Weasley, nodding coldly.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?"

He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration._

"Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

Mr. Weasley flushed darker than Ginny had.

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy."

"Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower —"

There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from Fred or George; A red-haired woman Harry assumed to be Mrs. Weasley was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"; the crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over; "Gentlemen, please — please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all —

"Break it up, there, gents, break it up —"

Hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. In an instant he had pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an _Encyclopedia of Toadstools._ He was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.

"Here, girl — take your book — it's the best your father can give you —" Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop. Mr. Weasley was chatting with Hagrid, as the two groups headed for the door, stopping to pay for their books on the way out. Near the back of the group standing by the front counter, Harry turned to Ginny.

"Don't worry." Harry said to the tiny red-haired girl. "You've already got some new books coming." He grabbed the old copy of _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ out of the cauldron, and instantly dropped it, along with a small antique looking leather book, both clattering to the floor. The hideous amounts of very dark magic seeping from it was frightening.

"Where did you get the book, Ginny?"

"I don't know, I've never seen it before." She reached to pick up the book, and was quickly pulled away by Harry.

"Don't touch it."

"What?" She asked. "Why not?"

"Just... trust me on this." He looked around deep in thought. "I need... AH! Dragon skin, that will work. Hermione! I need to borrow your sexy new jacket."

She blushed deeply, but removed it and handed it right over. Harry used the jacket to pick up the book, and carefully wrapped it so it was completely covered, before slipping the now wrapped book into his pocket.

"Aright, we're good, let's get out of here." Harry said, moving toward the door. "Bye, Tonks! Enjoy guard duty!"

She waved them out the door, groaning at Harry's slight poke at her job. He was glad that she was happy, bit still would never miss a chance to joke with her. The group went their separate ways after completing their shopping, and were only able to to get together one more time, before the summer ended.


End file.
